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144Chris Hadfield to share advice for success on Earth, set against ‘harrowing tales of space flight’http://www.folio.ca/chris-hadfield-to-share-advice-for-success-on-earth-set-against-harrowing-tales-of-space-flight/
http://www.folio.ca/chris-hadfield-to-share-advice-for-success-on-earth-set-against-harrowing-tales-of-space-flight/The iconic Canadian astronaut will also meet with UAlberta students who designed a satellite now measuring space weather.By GEOFF McMASTER

Perhaps the most surprising thing to learn about Chris Hadfield is that he’s afraid of heights. This is a guy who has floated in space while helping install Canadarm2 on the International Space Station (ISS) and deliberately thrown powerful fighter jets into a wild, end-over-end tumble as a test pilot, just to figure out how to regain control.

But Hadfield never once let an inconvenient phobia prevent him from chasing his dream. He knew he wanted to be an astronaut at nine years old, the moment he saw the Apollo mission land on the moon, and with single-minded determination, eventually made it happen in landmark fashion as the first Canadian to walk in space in 2001, and the first Canadian to command the ISS in 2013.

See Chris Hadfield live

Chris Hadfield will be appearing this Sunday, Oct. 1, at the Northern Jubilee, from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Hadfield was an astronaut for 21 years, retiring from the Canadian Space Agency in July 2013. During his illustrious career he travelled to space three times, most recently for a five-month stay on ISS. He also served as NASA's director of operations in Russia between 2000-2003.

"I think a fear of heights is good; it's healthy self-preservation,” said Hadfield, adding it’s also important to realize that “things aren't scary—people are scared.” In other words, there is a world of difference between danger and fear.

“Really, the beauty of life is in mastering something that otherwise might terrify you,” he said. “Sure, you have to respect your intuitive, innate fears, but not let them dictate your life, otherwise you'll never ride a bike, get married, drive a car or fly a spaceship. You need to find a way to overcome those fears or you'll spend your whole life shivering in a corner.”

Words to live by from someone who has soared to heights most of us can only imagine. It’s just one of the many pearls of wisdom Hadfield plans to share duringhis visit to the U of AOct. 1 to celebrate World Space Week. His public talk will focus on STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and tools and ideas for personal growth and achievement in learning.

Pushing people’s horizons

In addition to relating practical advice for success, set against “harrowing tales of flying in space,” he will also meet with students, including theAlbertaSatundergraduates in the faculties of Science and Engineering who designed the Ex-Alta 1 cube satellite.

Launched from the ISS last May to measure space weather, the satellite is an inspiring example of a project that can change of the lives of participants, said Hadfield.

“To be involved in a project like that—where you can take ownership of it and see it through end to end—suddenly you're part of something that is well beyond anything you thought you would be involved with,” he said.

“Once you've pushed a person's horizons further back, they will never again shrink. So I think it's really smart of the U of A and organizations that support the satellite, because of the change in the students' self perception."

Beyond that, monitoring space weather is crucial for understanding the electromagnetic environment surrounding all of us, he said. “Living with a star is dangerous, and the more we understand it, the better off we're going to be," especially when it comes to predicting solar storms.

Hadfield’s accomplishments in space, and his enormous contribution to the international space program, speak for themselves. But Hadfield is also celebrated as a gifted communicator. Throughout his career he has spoken regularly to students of all ages.

Hadfield’s latest mission

During his long-duration stay aboard ISS in 2013, he took pictures of Earth and shared them on social media. He also conversed with William Shatner ofStar Trekfame on Twitter, and recordedand shared the first song in space calledJewel in the Night, co-written with Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies.His version of David Bowie’sSpace Oddity,shot in space, went viral with more than 37 million views on YouTube.

Hadfield has written three books to date, most recently a picture book for children calledThe Darkest Dark. His current speaking tour is just one example of what he sees as a sacred responsibility to share what he has been so privileged to learn.

"My life provides a very different perspective than most people have and gives me a chance to talk about ideas, horizons and opportunity,” he said. “Just how is it you can do these things in life, how do you mold and change who you are to put yourself in a position where some of these things can happen?

“Take a student at U of A—or anyone else who comes to the talk—what choices do they make on a recurring basis in order to get closer to the things they're dreaming of?”

Helping people answer that question so they’re better able to reach their own heights has become Hadfield’s latest mission. And since he takes his guitar everywhere he goes, there’s always music involved.

And just what does it feel like to play and sing in zero gravity?

"The normal queues you developed on Earth are gone,” he said. “The way you breathe is different, the way your blood flows is different—the fluid can't drain out of your head without gravity. Your sinuses are constantly full, your tongue is swollen, and your muscle memory for guitar is all wrong.

“If you want to know what it feels like, put your guitar next to the wall, stand on your head for at least two hours until you truly get a lot of physiological changes happening in your body. While upside down, reach for the guitar and try to play and sing—that's what it feels like.

“But hey, after a while you can do anything.”

]]>news,Society & CultureTue, 26 Sep 2017 18:58:10 +0200That stiff back you have may not actually be stiff, UAlberta study findshttp://www.folio.ca/that-stiff-back-you-have-may-not-actually-be-stiff-ualberta-study-finds/
http://www.folio.ca/that-stiff-back-you-have-may-not-actually-be-stiff-ualberta-study-finds/Feeling of stiffness may mean something else is going on in the back.By LAURIE WANG

“A conscious experience of feeling stiff does not reflect true biomechanical back stiffness,” explained Greg Kawchuk, professor and back and spine expert in theDepartment of Physical Therapy. “When we use the same wordstiffnessto describe a feeling and how we measure actual stiffness, we assume these words are describing the same thing. But that is not always the case.”

In the study, Kawchuk and his team asked participants how stiff their backs felt. After that, using a customized device, they measured just how stiff the back actually was.

“There was no relation between biomechanical stiffness and the reported feeling of stiffness,” he said. “What people describe as stiffness is something different than the measurement of stiffness.”

Tasha Stanton, lead author and senior research fellow of pain neuroscience at the University of South Australia, said that the feeling of stiffness may be a protective construct that is created by our nervous system.

“It’s our body’s way of protecting ourselves, possibly from strain, further injury or more pain,” she said.

With lower back pain being the leading cause of disability worldwide—affecting approximately 632 million people—it is important to examine mechanisms associated with lower back pain and its symptoms, including stiffness.

“Words are important. The words patients use to describe a problem in the clinic may not be the same thing we as clinicians measure in the clinic,” said Kawchuk. “We need to find out what it means exactly when someone says they have a stiff back.

“We now know it might not mean that their back is mechanically stiff. It could mean they feel their movements are slower and more painful.”

Imagine this: You are having a lovely day at the park, when your sweet boy, only seven years old, falls from the monkey bars and screams loudly. His wrist is swelling quickly and looks deformed. You rush to the local hospital, where they tell you he will need x-rays and an IV, and, later, that his bones will need to be reset in the emergency department.

He is still crying, scared and in pain. What can you do, as a parent, to make this experience less stressful and painful for your child?

As a pediatrician who specializes in emergency care, I have had the privilege of caring for children with unexpected injuries and illness for over 15 years. During this time, I have seen and reflected on the tremendous pain that children sometimes experience, due in part to their injuries but also in part to the medical tests and procedures we must do.

For years, I did everything I could, as a doctor, to offer the best pain relief. When I realized that there were many unanswered questions about pain treatment, I took advantage of my position as a professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta to research the issue. Over the last decade, I have worked with various teams to research the best treatments for both presenting pain (such as headaches, fracture-related pain and abdominal pain) and procedural pain (such as blood tests, urine catheter insertions and IV insertions).

Based on current research, there are several straightforward things that parents can do to help minimize their child’s pain and distress during a hospital visit.

1. Give pain medicine early

Often parents believe treating their child’s pain before visiting the doctor will make it harder to diagnose the problem. This is not the case! It is a myth that doctors need “all the pain” to be present in order to figure out what is going on. Truthfully, it is very difficult to examine a child when they are writhing in agony, and much easier when they are comfortable. Remember, no over-the-counter pain reliever is capable of masking serious ailments.

So, treat your child with over-the-counter pain relievers (e.g. Tylenol or Advil) before you go the hospital (if they are able to swallow and are not vomiting). Use proper weight-based doses; your health professional can help you with this. If you arrive at the hospital and were unable to give your child medication before coming, ask for pain relievers early. In many emergency departments, the triage nurse can treat your child’s pain even before a doctor sees them.

2. Advocate for your child

Health professionals now have decades of research that demonstrate the benefits of proper pain treatment. Properly treating pain actually improves success rates and can prevent the need for repeat attempts at the same procedure. Further, there are real consequences to ignoring children’s pain. Children who experience moderate levels of pain during infancy may have long-term physical, psychological, and behavioural changes, including increased sensitivity to pain, abnormal social behaviours when older and higher levels of anxiety before a future procedure.

Surprisingly, health professional sometimes forget to prioritize pain treatment. It is not a malicious thing. They are often busy, under-resourced, unaware of the evidence that exists and focused on “fixing the problem”—sometimes at the expense of adequate pain management.

As a parent, you can advocate for your child’s pain treatment and remind the team not to forget this key aspect of your child’s hospital visit.

3. Use physical comfort measures

There are many things we can do to make a child more physically comfortable. If they have an injured limb, splinting it can relieve a great deal of the pain. Using ice on a limb or joint injury reduces swelling and pain as well.

If you have a baby, swaddling them in blankets and rocking them can soothe them when they are in pain. Even simply cuddling your child can go a long way in comforting them during painful tests or while waiting for results.

4. Use distraction

Distraction helps children feel less distress and pain. There are low-tech options, such as bubble-blowing, playing i-Spy games, reading books, talking and listening to music. These can be offered by you or the health care team at little cost. For some children, especially as they get older, digital technology is a preferred option. Choices include tablets, smart phones, video games, and more recently, robots and virtual reality.

If you have time to plan, bring one of these options with you to your hospital visit. If you didn’t have time to plan, ask your health-care team what they can offer. Many children’s hospitals even have “child life specialists,” whose very job it is to make your child’s hospital stay less stressful.

5. Ask for numbing cream

IVs and blood-work hurt. A lot. In fact, children tell us that getting an IV is the worst and most painful part of their hospital stay. There isindisputable researchthat tells us that numbing creams (e.g. EMLA, Maxilene), when applied 30 to 60 minutes before a blood test or IV, reduce much or all of the pain of the procedure.

These products are available at most, if not all, hospitals and emergency departments, but you need to ask for them early, so that they do not cause your child’s tests or treatments to be delayed. Ideally, the health care team will offer them to you. If they don’t, ask about them!

6. Remember that sugar eases pain

Concentrated sugar drops, dripped onto a baby’s tongue two minutes before and during a medical test (such as a urine catheter insertion or a blood test)reduce pain for babies under 12 months of age. It only takes two millilitres of this seemingly magical liquid to make a medical procedure easier for a baby! There are virtually no side effects to it, and it is safe even for premature newborns.

When combined with a pacifier, the sugar drops seem to work even better for many babies. Breastfeeding is well known to help ease pain and distress, as well, and should be chosen over sugar and pacifiers, if available for a baby.

7. Ask for a pain management plan for home

Emergency department visits and hospital stays are often just a “blip” in the timeline of your child’s journey back to health. In other words, most of your child’s pain will be dealt with by you, without the benefit of nurses and doctors. When it is time to leave the hospital, ask your health-care team what to doat home. Ask what medications to use, and what non-medication things you should do. Ask them what to do if the first-choice medicines don’t work. And don’t forget to get advice on return to activity.

Children’s pain matters, and should not be ignored. There is absolutely no reason that a child should be in pain while the doctor is trying to figure out what is going on. As parents, we should feel empowered to ask for the best pain treatment possible for our children.

Samina Aliis a professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at the University of Alberta.

Nobody likes to be told what to do. And now a UAlberta study proves that is true for even the strongest brand relationships.

“Seventy-two per cent of ads in America’s top 10 print magazines contain ads with language that tells consumers what to do,” said Sarah Moore, a marketing professor in the Alberta School of Business. “Our research is the first to look at how reactance motivation, your knee-jerk response to being bossed, is affected depending on your relationship status with brands.”

Moore found that while the reactions of less loyal customers were relatively neutral, surprisingly, ​the reactions of very loyal customers to pushy messages such asSave Money. Live Better,Think Different!,Buy Now!andVisit Us!were overwhelmingly negative.

“This is true even for seemingly innocuous assertive statements, likePlease Buy Now!or for messages that don’t have a negative consequence of non-compliance,” she said.

Even when offered a cash reward, Moore says an assertive message decreased how much that loyal customer would actually buy, and also made them mad.

“To not be compelled by cash is a strong test.”

Moore said only the more youthful and exciting brands, like Virgin or American Eagle, can get away with assertive style ads, but even their bossy ads didn’t register a positive effect.

Why the backlash?

According to Moore, reactance motivation reflects consumers’ need to be free to make their own choices. “Pushy ads, in demanding certain behaviours, restrict consumer freedoms and often cause backlash against the ad and brand.”

We know this to be true in human relationships, she explained.

“When your significant other tells you to do something, like attend a function that you don’t want to go to, you are likely to comply because you feel guilty. A similar process is activated in close brand relationships.

“The difference is that in brand-relationships, guilt backfires,” said Moore. “At the end of the day, consumers remember brands are just brands, which have commercial interests, and that they’re not true relationship partners. Backlash occurs.”

Practical tips for advertisers

The study offers a few remedies for marketers to modify language to avoid the impact of assertive ads.

“They can use directive language that is less individualistic and more general, and less pushy, likeNow is a good time to buy!instead ofBuy now!,” said Moore, adding this was shown to dissipate negative reactions in the research.

As well, Moore says when consumers think positively about their relationship with the brand, the negative impact of a pushy ad is decreased.

“Advertisers may want to play up this aspect, affirming the relationship, and then rephrase the call-to-action.”

A long-term partnership to deliver better health care in central and northern Alberta was renewed at a ceremony at the University of Alberta Hospital’s McMullen Gallery yesterday.

Alberta Health Services and the U of A signed a new 15-year master affiliation agreement, committing both organizations to improve patient care together.

The agreement, which runs until 2032, marks a new era of collaboration between the U of A and AHS. Putting pen to paper formalizes guidelines for the way the organizations will work together in training and academic programs, the appointment of medical staff and health professionals, health-care delivery, capital projects, public policy, research and information privacy and security.

“It’s kind of like a marriage,” said Dennis Kunimoto, acting dean of the U of A’s Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. “Having agreements laid out makes it clear so that there is no misunderstanding about who should do what, or who owns what, and how we move forward together.”

Kathryn Todd, vice-president research, innovation and analytics at AHS, said she thinks the agreement will drive AHS and the U of A to do better for Albertans.

“Patients are going to benefit from the agreement by having the best care from the best trained professionals,” she said. “We talk a lot in the affiliation about how we support innovation together, how it’s Alberta Health Services’ obligation to be a great preceptor, and the university’s obligation to contribute research innovation and translate it into useable initiatives that the health system can actually take up.”

Famous for its weather forecasts, theOld Farmer’s Almanachas published its predictions for the coming year—but don’t believe everything you read.

The folksy pocket-sized magazine has been a regular go-to for farmers and other fans during fall harvest season since it first began publishing in 1792. As cosy and comforting as pumpkin pie, it offers everything from home remedies to food recipes—but the long-range weather predictions that fill many of its pages are nothing but pure guesswork, said a University of Alberta weather modelling expert.

It’s tempting to want to plan ahead, especially for those who depend on good weather to make a living, but it’s not realistic to rely on sources that offer long-term predictions, saidGerhard Reuter, a professor in theFaculty of Sciencewho uses the almanac as a teaching tool in some of his classes.

“I understand that people want to have the weather a year in advance so they can see if it will rain on their June wedding day, but that information is not reliable. It’s great for entertainment value, but it’s a bad example for how things should be done scientifically. I have nothing against the almanac, but it’s a good example of what constitutes a non-professional focus in forecasting weather,” he said.

Good weather forecast offer many specifics

The magazine states that it compares past and current solar patterns, activities and historical weather conditions for its forecasts, but the results are vague, Reuter said. The almanac gives climate predictions for each region of Canada, providing an average temperature for each month and general weekly weather descriptions.

This year for the prairie region the almanac predicts a milder than normal winter with the coldest periods in late November, most of December, early January and early February. But there’s no realistic way to truly forecast weather in the long-term, said Reuter.“It’s beyond our control. The further out you go, the less reliable the forecast will be.”

Good forecasts are specific in region, timing and include items like temperature values or wind speeds, he added. “TheFarmer’s Almanacis vague in all of these aspects, with descriptions like ‘fairly mild or slightly cooler than normal’.”

Reuter trusts forecasts about a week ahead, with allowances up to 10 days for the bigger systems winter weather tends to bring with it.

“They have websites with forecasted weather elements including temperature, precipitation (rain and snow) amounts, cloud cover, humidity and wind speed and direction. Generally speaking, the best forecasts are for one day of lead time, then two and three days,” he said.

Planting crops by the moon’s phase

Reuter also casts a doubting eye on another age-old weather-themed prediction posted by the almanac—planting by the moon’s phase.

The magazine claims that cycles of the moon can affect plant growth and offers a timetable for sowing seeds, but the changes aren’t enough to influence how crops or gardens grow, he said.

“The reflection of the moon is less than a cloud passing over the sun. The variation of radiation whether the moon is full or not makes no difference.”

]]>news,Society & CultureThu, 21 Sep 2017 19:24:03 +0200University’s legacy gift to community, in honour of Canada 150, to be unveiled this Sundayhttp://www.folio.ca/universitys-legacy-gift-to-community-in-honour-of-canada-150-to-be-unveiled-this-sunday/
http://www.folio.ca/universitys-legacy-gift-to-community-in-honour-of-canada-150-to-be-unveiled-this-sunday/University architect provides an insider’s look at how Evergreen Pond and the Circle came to be.By BEN LOUIE

In participating in the 24-member Sesquicentennial Committee over the past year, six of us were invited to develop a legacy project to complement a year of campus activities celebrating Canada 150. This Sunday, Sept. 24, the university will unveil it on South Campus.

The committee’s first job was to develop celebratory principles. It came up with 12 of them, includingauthentically U of A principles—daring and surprising, and focused on the public good. This is in addition to the four articulated Government of Canada's themes of diversity and inclusion, reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, youth and environment.

Plenty of ideas

The invitation came with a list of suggestions, such as 150 trees with 150 stories, a sense of permanence and more. It also came with another stark reality: there would be no budget for activities or the legacy project. No matter. In true team spirit, members of the legacy committee rolled up their sleeves and contributed with energy in crafting a legacy gift befitting our university community.

University celebrates Canada 150

To officially open Evergreen Pond and Circle, the U of A will be hosting an all-ages event on Sunday, Sept. 24 at the university's South Campus, located at the intersection of 63 Avenue and 118 Street.

For more information about the activities planned and where to park, click here.

The idea proposed and adopted by the Sesquicentennial Committee was to create a campus commons, in the vein of a city central park or a college quad, in the middle of an academic campus on South Campus.

When fully developed, this place-making legacy project will be a focal point in the public realm, echoing the agrarian notion of a fallow, intentionally leaving land uncultivated for a duration to let it recover its fertility, a collegiate notion of sabbatical, setting aside time for field research and scholarship, and most of all, a notion of a liberal education, pursuing the search for knowledge and understanding in juxtaposition with an engaging life of practical employment.

Thanks to one of our archivist-minded colleagues, the development of the design was inspired by worthy words of prominent people who have or had a connection to the university, such as alumnus Wilton Littlechild, who recently served as a commission with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, alumnus and writer W.O. Mitchell and former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, an honourary degree recipient.

The concept

The water feature is, of course, a practical engineering solution to water retention. But it also serves as a sustainability step towards caring for our environment and demonstrating our commitment to environmental responsibility.

The stage is a classical form of open invitation to engage and participate, whether it be a gathering, a ceremony, an oratory, a performance or a reflection. The ingredients of the design are the natural elements of earth, fire, water, wood, stone and air. When combined and articulated, they give form to a dance between nature and human activity, conveying an authenticity of place, an authentic moment of time, an authenticity of purpose and a sense of timelessness through its ability to evolve over time.

The design provided an opportunity for naming also. Evergreen Pond is a direct reference to the name of U of A's yearbook Evergreen and Gold. The word evergreen also conjures up images of renewal and regeneration that embrace the themes of environmental stewardship and youth. Pond suggests a place for repose. The Circle, name for the arena stage, is non-prescriptive in its simplicity in nomenclature and its open-endedness for interpretation and use, embracing the other two sesquicentennial celebration themes of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples as well as diversity and inclusion.

What the future holds

It was a rewarding experience for members of the committee to be able to interest and assemble a village of engaged and committed participants through all aspects of the project’s implementation as well as program planning for the upcoming celebratory event.

One could imagine and dream about the countless stories and memories of those who would come to experience this stage and the naturalized pond in the days ahead.

Will this Sesquicentennial legacy project be a welcomed venue or perhaps an invitation to contemplate and rebuild relationships under an ever-changing but comforting prairie sky? That is the committee’s hope. Time will tell.

As a young girl who immigrated to Canada from Zimbabwe in 2007, Natasha Danha’s opportunity to work as a co-researcher for six weeks with a UAlberta PhD student on a project sponsored by Women in Science, Engineering and Technology was not lost on her.

“In Africa, science, engineering and technology are considered a preserve of the male gender,” said the first-year University of Alberta science student and 2017 Schulich Leadership Scholarship recipient.

Always a high academic achiever—Danha earned the highest overall average in grades 8, 9 and 11, and a near perfect score on her math provincial diploma examination—she’s equally involved in her community.

As an immigrant, she’s experienced first hand what it feels like to be a visible minority, and it has inspired her to give back to others in need. She founded an ongoing Students Against Bullying Campaign that was recognized on a national level by the Rock Solid Foundation, and has participated in various community initiatives, such as being a student representative for parents council and a member of the leadership club and social justice committee.

But her passion lies in science, which was confirmed last summer during her experience in the WISEST program, where she worked in meat scientist Heather Bruce’s lab investigating the relationship between age and toughness of steak in cattle.

“My daily routine in the lab consisted of completing hydrolysis and evaporation of the IMCT samples, as well as assisting with other projects in the lab," said Danha. "Using High Performance Liquid Chromatography, and Differential Scanning Calorimetry, we were then able to quantify the presence of collagen crosslinks.

She’s decided to further her studies in science and hopes to one day become a pharmaceutical researcher.

Danha and Sean Sander are two of 50 students in Canada, and two at the U of A, to receive four-year scholarships of $80,000 to $100,000, depending on their chosen profession. The Schulich Leaders program recognizes Canadian high-school students who demonstrate excellence in academics and community leadership, and who plan to study science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

Early-stage UAlberta research suggests that taking a cholesterol-lowering statin regularly may help boost the body’s ability to fight off chronic conditions like HIV and cancer.

“We concluded that atorvastatin (marketed under Lipitor, among other brands) may be beneficial to patients with HIV and cancer by preventing their T-cells—a type of white blood cell that kills cancer cells or other cells infected with viruses—from shutting down,” said Shokrollah Elahi, an immunologist and assistant professor in UAlberta’s Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry.

How it works

When T-cells sense an unwelcome presence, such as a cold virus, for example, they mobilize and move into a state of constant alert to kill the virus, explained Elahi. Once the T-cells have finished eradicating the virus, in a healthy person, they express molecules on their surface called “immune checkpoints” and shut themselves down until the next problem arises.

In a chronic infection or disease, a malignant tumour for example, the same killer T-cells reach a state of exhaustion, harness their immune checkpoints and effectively shut down completely.

“Cancer cells are clever, too, because they express molecules that mimic immune checkpoints’ molecules, effectively accelerating the shutdown process of our body’s natural immune fighters,” explained Elahi. “This is why immune therapies have been at the forefront of cancer treatment in recent years.”

Enter atorvastatin, a cost-effective drug with minimal side effects that appears to reduce the majority of immune checkpoints that are typically found on T-cells in human tissue in Elahi’s lab.

“Most current immune therapies work on one or two checkpoints, only, and are very expensive,” added Elahi. “These are promising early results, which we now need to replicate in trials with patients.”

The chemical, endocrine disruptor bisphenol-A (BPA), is used on most paper receipts.

“The total BPA exposure was far below known toxic threshold levels, however the finding is important because it shows for the first time that the proportion of free BPA—the toxic form of BPA—in blood following skin exposure is much higher than that following oral exposure.”

BPA, a chemical used in plastic, is also found in other food products, such as canned foods, as well as in a commonly used type of thermal paper used to print receipts.

In 2010, Canada was the first country in the world to declare BPA a toxic substance, and then banned it in the production of baby bottles and sippy cups. The hormone disruptor is known to interact with estrogen and play a role in several disorders including female and male infertility and breast cancer tumours.

“Our research showed that BPA absorbed through the skin is metabolized much less efficiently than when ingested orally,” said Liu, theorizing that it could lead to a longer and more toxic exposure.

The study asked six U of A volunteers to handle paper containing BPA for five minutes and then to wear gloves for two hours, after which they washed their hands with soap. Measurements of BPA in participants’ urine for the next two days and one week later showed the BPA increased over those two days and was still present a week later.

“But after each participant ate a cookie containing BPA, the total BPA in their urine spiked within five hours and was fully cleared within a day,” said Liu.

The different metabolism efficiency was due to the fact that there are lower levels of metabolism enzymes in the skin versus the intestine and liver.

“That’s a big difference between oral and non-oral exposure,” she added. “In the future, there is a need for more studies that evaluate and validate that health risk, especially in people who work closely with this type of paper.”

Spending summers working on the farm with his grandfather in southern Alberta, Sean Sander quickly developed a deep connection to the environment that led him to an important realization.

“Despite numerous technological advances, human existence remains intimately tied to our environment and the food we consume,” said Sander, a first year UAlberta engineering student and recipient of the 2017 Schulich Leader Scholarship.

In 2013, armed with this special insight about the environment, Sander travelled to New York as part of a three-week exchange called theYouth Ambassador Program with Canada.He returned home to Lethbridge with an increased understanding of the policies surrounding climate change and the role he could play in environmental stewardship within his community.

That’s when he started a school-wide composting program to address the food waste in his junior high school’s cafeteria, a program has been operating for three years.

In 2015, Sander was selected by theAlberta Council for Global Cooperationto travel to Hamburg, South Africa to learn about the Keiskamma Trust, a multi-faceted project dedicated to bringing hope and health back to a region decimated by the AIDS pandemic.

Sander said he was particularly interested in learning about the innovative methods the residents of Hamburg employed in their community garden to work with their natural environment.

“There is a lot we can learn from collaborating with South African growers, who practice the agricultural techniques of natural pesticides and crop rotation,” he said.

Sander is also a freshwater aquarium enthusiast. In fact, he developed a system that allowed aquatic plants to grow significantly faster, which led to his a small business selling freshwater plants and tropical fish. With the profits, Sander has funded aquariums for several community organizations.

Through his involvement in theHeritage Youth Summer Research Programand the Canada Animal Diseases Research Institute, Sander developed a number of skills in scientific inquiry. His work withE. colibacteria taught him about genetically modified organisms and the pros and cons of their use in food, and he has learned how pollution can manifest itself through illness in animals.

Sander says for him, engineering is the best path towards solving global problems such as eradicating world hunger, providing clean water, protecting the environment and improving people’s quality of life.

Sander and Natasha Danha are two of 50 students across Canada to receive four-year scholarships of $80,000 to $100,000, depending on their chosen profession. The Schulich Leaders program recognizes Canadian high-school students who demonstrate excellence in academics and community leadership, and who plan to study science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

]]>news,Society & CultureTue, 19 Sep 2017 20:59:00 +0200 COMMENTARY || Fierce debate roars to life over grizzly bear hunthttp://www.folio.ca/commentary--fierce-debate-roars-to-life-over-grizzly-bear-hunt/
http://www.folio.ca/commentary--fierce-debate-roars-to-life-over-grizzly-bear-hunt/Management of grizzlies requires those on either side of the issue to find some common ground.By COURTNEY HUGHES and LINDSEY DEWART

There’s no shortage of controversy surrounding the British Columbia government’s decision to stop the grizzly bear trophy hunt.

The province announced in late August that it’s moving towards permanently closing grizzly trophy hunting by the end of November, with immediate closure in the Great Bear Rainforest. Hunting grizzlies for their meat is still permitted.

Supporters of trophy hunting view the ban as a political decision that ignores scientific information, diminishes economic opportunities and tarnishes hunters’ reputations.

Opponents applaud the ban, arguing the hunt is outdated, lacks concrete evidence to support its existence and is barbaric.

Certainly the ban could signal changes for future grizzly bear management across other jurisdictions.

A North American debate

Outfitters in the Yukon have already raised concerns, calling for more scientific studies to inform bear management decisions.

Alberta may also face increased scrutiny and pressure to reconsider a grizzly hunt in light of research on bear populations and public tolerance for conflict.

There’s also controversy about hunting grizzlies in the United States, with Yellowstone’s recent decision to remove the bears from their endangered status list and the move to stop protecting bears on Alaskanreserves.

So what to make of these arguments for and against trophy hunting grizzlies? Is trophy hunting a legitimate management tool? And is it even ethical to control the grizzly population that way?

Hunters say bear population kept under control

Supporters say trophy hunting is an effective population management tool, and can help mitigate human-bear conflicts. In B.C., trophy hunters say grizzly bears are the most closely managed and conservatively hunted species in the province.

Prior to the ban, the former B.C. government released a 2016 scientific review on grizzly bear hunting and said adequate safeguards were in place to ensure long-term stability of bear populations. However, habitat loss was instead noted as a significant challenge, and improvements in monitoring bears were required.

The review also noted B.C. produced more DNA-based population estimates for grizzlies than any other jurisdiction. Consequently, hunters argue bear management must be informed by science rather than opinion or emotions.

Even the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has suggested “in certain limited and rigorously controlled cases … scientific evidence has shown that trophy hunting can be an effective conservation tool.”

Hunting male bears

This view is supported in other literature, with some researchers adding a regulated bear hunt may increase public acceptance of living alongside grizzly bears. However, this could also be perceived as giving people the power to manage problem bears as they deem fit—not necessarily a palatable concept for everyone.

Biologists also point out that trophy hunters generally target male bears because they’re bigger, and that may not pose the greatest threat to the grizzly population as it would if female bears were the primary focus.

Of 73 licences allocated in 2005 for grizzly bear hunting in Alberta, only 10 bears were hunted and killed. Instead, poaching, death after being mistaken for the more common black bears and roadway collisions may pose greater risk.

In B.C., however, opponents contend that hunting kills an average of 297 bears annually.

Opponents also argue that the lack of monitoring hunting raises serious questions about whether it’s an effective way to control the grizzly population or reduce bear-human conflict.

Is it a management tool?

Additionally, the same authors found that because hunting is not evenly distributed across bear habitats, social structure can be destabilized, and in turn this can impact the population.

As for conflict reduction, a 2016 study found that bear hunting did not reduce the frequency of bear/human confrontations. Human behaviour and poor garbage management were likely conflict culprits.

A 2009 study, meantime, suggested the complex life histories, behaviours and social systems of animals like grizzlies mean any predictions that scientists make about trophy hunting as a management tool are unreliable.

Bear-viewing more lucrative?

Economic opportunities are also commonly raised in the grizzly hunt debate.

Guide outfitters in B.C. say hunting has brought in more than $350 million annually (for bears and other wildlife) from national and international hunters. Some say the ban will result in lost revenue, affecting not just personal livelihoods but entire communities.

Opponents, however, argue trophy hunting is a corrupt practice globally, where revenues are unfairly or disproportionately meted out across communities and only benefit a few.

Furthermore, they say a live bear is far more economically valuable than a dead one. The Center for Responsible Travel found more revenue was generated from bear-viewing in the Great Bear Rainforest, and provided more job opportunities.

Swapping bullets for binoculars

Some outfitters suggest the hunting ban wouldn’t affect their businesses, because they’d shift to bear-viewing. Some B.C. resorts have already encouraged hunters to trade in their bullets for binoculars as an incentive to never hunt grizzlies again.

Opponents also believe trophy hunting is immoral and wasteful. To some, it’s inconceivable to kill an animal for sport.

Many were disappointed in the B.C. trophy hunting decision because they’d hoped for a complete ban on grizzly hunting, particularly since the animals are not commonly eaten like elk or deer. Hunting of animals that are consumed as food is regarded as less offensive.

On the motivations of trophy hunters, studies suggest the “prospect of displaying large and/or dangerous (animals) at least in part underlies the behaviour of many contemporary hunters.”

The same authors suggest men who hunt carnivores are signalling they can afford it, which helps them accrue status and attention, particularly from potential mates.

So, what are wildlife managers to do when society remains so deeply divided on trophy hunting? Who gets to decide how grizzly bears should be managed?

This debate is certainly not new to wildlife management, and has become an increasingly contentious topic as biologists, policy makers and the broader public ponders how to govern the animals that share our planet.

What’s next?

In B.C., the government has attempted to temper the debate by permitting hunting grizzlies for meat, despite compliance concerns. In the Yukon, there’s a call for more studies to help inform decision-making, and our ongoing research, not yet published, has found some in rural Alberta are asking questions about reopening a grizzly hunting season.

Perhaps trophy hunting isn’t the greatest threat to North America’s grizzly bears. Certainly, habitat loss and population fragmentation, as well as climate change, pose even greater risks.

That’s why now, more than ever, we need consolidated action to manage grizzlies—not more argument. If we want grizzly bears to remain in our future, we need to set aside our differences and find some common ground.

Courtney Hughes is a conservation biology PhD candidate at the University of Alberta. Lindsey Dewart is an assistant researcher at the U of A.

]]>news,CommentMon, 18 Sep 2017 20:14:16 +0200UAlberta physicists upend what is known about northern lightshttp://www.folio.ca/ualberta-physicists-upend-what-is-known-about-northern-lights/
http://www.folio.ca/ualberta-physicists-upend-what-is-known-about-northern-lights/New model shows mechanism thought to be behind certain classes of northern lights may not even exist.By KATIE WILLIS

What scientists thought caused certain classes of northern lights is not what causes certain classes of northern lights.

In a landmark study that has toppled what scientists know about the night sky, UAlberta physicistsRobert Rankinand Dmytro Sydorenko found that the ionospheric feedback instability (IFI)—the mechanism thought to be the cause of certain types of northern lights—not only doesn’t cause northern lights, it may not even exist at all.

“These findings fly in the face of what is now commonly accepted in the world of space science,” said Rankin. “Our research shows that conditions necessary for the ionospheric feedback instability to occur are very unlikely, meaning it cannot be the cause of something as regular as the Aurora Borealis.”

The Sydorenko and Rankin model maps the activity of Alfvén waves generated in Earth’s ionosphere—a region between 100 to 1,000 kilometres into the magnetosphere containing plasma and Earth’s geomagnetic field. Here, ultralow frequency plasma waves are thought to become trapped and amplified through the IFI. However, the researchers’ new model shows that the waves do not interact with the ionosphere in a uniform way—something researchers have long considered to have a causal link to the Aurora Borealis.

The research has implications for many areas of investigation, ranging from theoretical physics to our understanding of space weather and the solar wind.

“A good theory has few assumptions,” said Rankin, who added that eliminating a theory or assumption is how science advances. “This model strengthens our understanding of how Earth’s ionosphere responds to geomagnetic activity, and is accessible and useful for any interested researchers.”

Indeed, Sydorenko and Rankin’s work opens the door for new investigation into what causes northern lights—making it an important leap forward in our understanding of this phenomenon.

The coming of bitter winter weather is always a bit easier to take when nature puts on a fall show, first.

For the Edmonton area, that means a fluttering cloak of gold as the leaves of trees native to Alberta’s parkland, like aspen and Manitoba maple, start to turn in August and September, said a University of Alberta tree expert.

Whether you love their beauty or hate to rake them, there’s more to the fall leaf than meets the eye. UAlberta experts explain.

Why do leaves change colours?

Leaves contain several pigments that could be yellow, red, even purple depending on the tree species, Karst said.

“The reason we don’t see them in summer is because they are masked by green pigment known as chlorophyll. In the fall that chlorophyll starts to degrade and when that happens, those other pigments can be seen.”

She added the season for fall foliage usually peaks in mid-September, “so get out and enjoy it!”

Do some leaves take longer to change than others?

Yes. “Ash trees are among the first to drop their leaves, while oak is one of the last to go,” Karst said. Weather can also determine how long the fall show is. Wind can end the season sooner than usual, as can a cold snap that instantly turns leaves dry, brown and down on the ground.

What are good places in the city for viewing fall leaves?

Edmonton’s river valley, with its heavily wooded areas, is one of the best places to view the colourful autumn landscape, Karst said.

“My favorite spot in Edmonton is up on top of the stairs that are in the Wolf Willow neighbourhood, going into the river valley.”

The U of A north campus, with its selection of more than 400 trees—40 different native and ornamental species—is also a nice place to take a scenic stroll. The campus also includes eight hectares of forested area along the North Saskatchewan River with walking trails and some boardwalks.

How are dead leaves important to the ecosystem?

“The leaf litter fuels an entire ecosystem below the ground,” Karst noted. Tiny invertebrates like mites and earthworms eat and convert the leaves to organic matter which eventually turns into nutrients that feed plants.

What’s that tangy smell in the air?

“There’s that nice smell when we think of fall,” Karst said. That spicy fragrance is caused by damp leaves fermenting on the ground. And while it sounds gross, it has a purpose. “That decomposition is important because it means nutrients are being recycled.”

Do we have to rake up the leaves in the yard?

It can be a big job, but yes, the leaves have to be gathered up somehow, said Ken Willis, head of Horticulture at theU of A Botanic Garden. Besides raking them up from hard surfaces like sidewalks, patios and eavestroughs, it’s important to also clean up leaves that land on existing garden plants, particularly evergreen shrubs, to avoid burns on the foliage. The good news is, those leaves can be put to good organic use by investing in a mulching type lawn mower with sharp blades.

“Mulching leaves into turf is highly beneficial, adding very valuable organic matter. Best of all, it’s free,” Willis said. When the weather cools down, reduce your mowing height from the summer height of four inches to 2.5 inches. Continually mow over any fallen leaves until freeze up, mow in one direction, then change perpendicularly.

Leaves can also be added to compost piles or green recycling bins. Compost piles comprised only of leaves will decompose over time into a wonderful soil supplement—leaf mould.

Chen and her team were ultimately able to bake muffins using nothing but lentil protein, and cut egg and milk content to half in angel food cake—the fussiest of cakes to bake from scratch. They chose it deliberately for its difficulty factor, to give the lentil product a tough test.

If it can make an angel food cake successfully...

“If this can make an angel food cake successful, it can make many other products too,” said Chen.

The study revealed that powdered lentil—resembling flour—produces the same foaming reaction and air bubbles in batter as eggs and milk, which is what gives good baking a soft, springy texture.

The discovery—resulting from Chen’s ongoing research program with plant-based proteins—means that the food-processing industry can now start experimenting with the ingredient in their own recipes. She plans to present the results at upcoming food science conferences.

She predicts home bakers will be able to reach for lentil protein on store shelves within two to three years, adding to the plant-based choices consumers already have, like chickpea flour, she noted.

The pulse advantage

Overall, shoppers and food producers alike are becoming more aware of the advantages pulses offer both for healthy eating and cost-efficiency, Chen said.

According toPulse Canada, Canadian production of pulse and other special crops like peas, lentils, sunflowers and buckwheat jumped from about one million tonnes in the early 1990s to 5.9 million tonnes in 2015.

Lentils and other pulse plants like dried peas and dried beans appeal to health-conscious shoppers by providing high-protein foods low in fat and cholesterol. The crops also offer more stable pricing for processors than animal-based commodities like eggs, which tend to fluctuate in price, Chen said.

“Plant proteins are the most rapidly-growing food ingredient sector. I think you will see more and more food on the market with these as an ingredient,” Chen said.

Dentist Maryam Amin says it’s not uncommon for dentists to encounter young children with 15 or more decayed teeth.

“Many parents simply don’t know how to prevent cavities in kids, or they don’t believe they need to treat baby teeth, or—in the vast majority of cases—they can’t afford to treat them,” explained Amin, a pediatric dentistry professor in the UAlberta’s Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry.

How to stop cavities in kids

Don’t let your kids brush on their own.

“Many parents are proud their kids can brush their teeth by the age of four. That’s not brushing, that’s playing,” said Maryam Amin, a UAlberta pediatric dentistry professor. Parents need to be involved with the actual brushing, and then check their child’s mouth after until children are the age of nine, she added.

Read up on how diet causes cavities in kids.

Several commonly accepted dietary behaviours, such as improper breast- or bottle-feeding after eruption of baby teeth or the age of one, can increase the risk of tooth decay, said Amin. “Walking around with a sippy cup containing sweet drinks is another unhealthy habit. Milk and juices contain sugars that stay in children’s mouths, produce acids, erode enamel and cause cavities.”

Visit the dentist early and regularly.

“A child should start being seen annually by a dentist after their first year,” said Amin, citing the Canadian Dental Association’s recommendation. “It’s hard for parents to identify the signs of dental decay, whereas dentists can detect very early stages and apply preventive measures to stop the spread.”

The statistics support her experience: 56 per cent of Canadian children have been affected by tooth decay, and one-third of all day surgeries for children under the age of five is for dental reasons.

“Children who have toothaches and abscesses may be malnourished because they can’t chew certain foods or they may be sleep deprived,” she added. “And both of those health issues may impact their cognitive development and, ultimately, performance at school.”

That’s not all: Almost 2.26 million school days are missed every year in Canada due to dental-related illness, according to the Canadian Health Measures Survey.

“The simple answer would be improving access to care,” said Amin. “The more complex answer would be a societal recognition of oral health as an equally important facet of overall health.”

Identifying tooth pain in children

“Often, young children don’t communicate that their teeth hurt,” pointed out Amin. This means parents may be mistakenly identifying their children as picky eaters, poor sleepers and socially awkward when toothaches are the actual culprit.

“One mom told me her five-year-old daughter never smiled. The little girl had seen her discoloured teeth in the mirror and thought they were ugly,” said Amin. “If tooth decay is affecting children’s self-esteem, that’s going to impact school performance, as well.”

Left untreated, cavities spread much quicker in baby teeth.

“Dentists try to save baby teeth because they are important for speech development, chewing food and creating the pathway for adult teeth eruption,” explained Amin. “Also, children who get cavities in their baby teeth are more susceptible to get cavities in their adult teeth.”

The good news is that research shows that when oral problems are treated and children are not in pain, their grades improve, she added.

If you are concerned your child is suffering from dental decay, visit a dentist.

“Unfortunately, there are very few options for families who can’t afford dental care,” contended Amin.

In fact, one study showed that 80 per cent of dental decay is experienced in 25 per cent of children, and 80 per cent of decay is experienced in low-income children aged two to five years remains untreated.

“There’s a tremendous and unacceptable degree of oral health disparity in our society that needs to be addressed,” said Amin.

]]>news,Health & WellnessThu, 14 Sep 2017 19:49:14 +0200COMMENTARY: Legal weed: How to talk to your teenagers and kids about ithttp://www.folio.ca/commentary-legal-weed-how-to-talk-to-your-teenagers-and-kids-about-it/
http://www.folio.ca/commentary-legal-weed-how-to-talk-to-your-teenagers-and-kids-about-it/Cannabis is the most widely available and most used illegal substance in the world, and Canadian youth are among the top users. Parents and their kids need to prepare for the day it becomes legal in Canada in 2018.By GERAINT OSBOURNE

Weed, pot, grass, marijuana—or cannabis to use the proper terminology—will be legal in Canada from July 1, 2018. Anyone over the age of 18 will be able to walk into a store and buy up to 30 grams of regulated product. While most Canadians approve of this new policy, many also believe the law will fail to stop more children using the drug.

So how should we talk to kids and teenagers about this new legal drug? What can parents do with legalization just months away?

This is a question that I—as a cannabis researcher and father of 17-year-old twin boys—take very seriously, and for good reason. Globally, cannabis is the most available and most used illegal substance and Canadian youth have some of the highest use rates in the world.

The good news is that parents have many tools at their fingertips to protect their children and teens. Here, I offer six steps to help you navigate this tricky terrain.

Start family discussions early

The best defence against any kind of drug abuse is knowledge and education. Being properly informed about drugs is central to the harm reduction approach to drugs that is slowly gaining momentum across Canada and other parts of the world.

This approach recognizes that drug abuse is a public health and education problem, not a crime problem. Much of our successes in combating drinking and driving, and reducing cigarette smoking, have come through information and education initiatives.

Education starts at home. And it should begin as early as possible, with age- appropriate language like that used in It’s Just a Plant, a book designed for parents who want to talk to their children about cannabis.

Discussing cannabis with your child should be no different than discussing alcohol and nicotine. A frank conversation about all substances, both legal and illegal, is essential to preventing the abuse of any drug among our youth.

Find evidence-based information

Parents do need to educate themselves about drugs, rather than relying on their own personal experiences or media scare stories. There is a great deal of research available on cannabis and other drugs. But this wealth of information can understandably be overwhelming.

Drug Free Kids Canada is a registered charity offering offers resources for parents to talk to their kids and teens about drugs.

Fortunately, there are a number of informative and reliable online sources available to Canadian parents, such as the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, Drug Free Kids Canada and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Explain addiction and brain damage

Kids need to know that cannabis is not harmless. And that it has become much more potent over the years. The best decision, like with all legal and illegal substances, is abstinence. Undoubtedly, from a health perspective, if people can get through life without using caffeine, tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, they are better off.

However, because we live in a society saturated with drugs (just check out the beer and pharmaceutical ads on television or the long coffee shop lineups), we need to be pragmatic.

Our children will be exposed to many drugs throughout the course of their lives, including cannabis. They may decide to experiment or use more regularly. They need to know what the potential harms are, as well as the potential benefits. They also need to know the differences between use and abuse.

A free online learning module from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use explains the effects of cannabis use during adolescence.

While much more research is required, the key health concerns with cannabis are addiction, mental illness, damage to the developing brain, driving while intoxicated and cardiovascular disease.

Talk about socializing, creativity and sex

Besides discussing the harms associated with the abuse of cannabis, parents need to have an honest discussion about why people use it—without relying on outdated stereotypes or stigmatizing users. This can be more difficult for parents who don’t use cannabis themselves as they may think that such a discussion will encourage use.

But by explaining why and how people use cannabis, parents can demystify the drug. They can demonstrate that, like alcohol, cannabis can be used responsibly by most people in a variety of social contexts.

This “normalizing” of cannabis reduces its status as a choice for the rebellious. It makes the formerly mysterious and taboo drug rather boring and mundane. This may help explain why cannabis use by youth in Colorado has not increased significantly since the drug was legalized.

So why do people use cannabis recreationally?

For centuries, people all over the globe have used cannabis for many reasons. The research has found that—like alcohol users—most use cannabis as a rational choice to enhance certain activities.

When used properly, it can help with relaxation and concentration, making many activities more enjoyable. Eating, listening to music, socializing, watching movies, playing sports, having sex and being creative are some things some people say cannabis makes more enjoyable.

Sometimes people use cannabis to enhance spiritual experiences or to make mundane tasks like chores more fun. But most importantly, most users recognize that there’s a time and place for use and have integrated it into their lives without forgoing their daily obligations and responsibilities.

Teach responsible cannabis use

The responsible use of cannabis is identical to the responsible use of alcohol. The key principles are: understand the effects of the different strains (sativa, indica and hybrids) of cannabis; avoid mixing with other drugs; use in a safe environment; use in moderation; don’t let use interfere with responsibilities; and don’t use in contexts that may endanger the lives of others, such as driving while under the influence.

Many of the health concerns relating to cannabis are associated with heavy chronic use or, in other words, abuse of the drug. As with most things in life, moderation is key. Moderation—in frequency and amount—is important for the responsible use of any substance.

Recent research suggests that many cannabis users, like alcohol users, use responsibly. If parents reinforce the importance of responsible use, their children will be far less likely to suffer the harms associated with cannabis.

Just say “know,” not “no!”

History has shown us that the war on drugs has been an abysmal failure. Prohibition hasn’t prevented people—young or old—from using drugs. Prohibition created a black market, gang wars, corruption and dangerous products.

A harm reduction approach to cannabis regulates a safer quality product and focuses on informing people about the potential risks and benefits of cannabis use. Educating our youth about cannabis and responsible use—through talking with them and listening to them—will be far more effective and safer than trying to stop them using it.

When it comes to kids and weed, it’s better to say “know” than “just say no!”

]]>news,Comment,Society & CultureThu, 14 Sep 2017 08:00:00 +0200UAlberta grads have highest employment rate in Canadahttp://www.folio.ca/ualberta-grads-have-highest-employment-rate-in-canada/
http://www.folio.ca/ualberta-grads-have-highest-employment-rate-in-canada/International employability ranking says grads here have best chance of landing a job of all Canadian schools, places U of A in the top 100 worldwide. By MICHAEL BROWN

University of Alberta graduates have the highest employment rate in Canada and one of best in the world, according to the latest university ranking.

The U of A also cracked the top 100 in overall graduate employability, which is the aggregate of five key indicators—alumni outcomes, employer-student connections, employer reputation, graduate employment rate and partnerships with employers. It was ranked 94th in the world and fifth in Canada.

In addition, the U of A excelled in the partnership with employers category, landing at 85 in the world and fourth in Canada.

According to a U of A Career Centre Employment Survey performed in 2015, 91.4 per cent of alumni who had been graduated for five years were employed, and the unemployment rate for U of A grads five years out was just 2.8 per cent, significantly lower than the 6.8 per cent national average. The survey also indicated the unemployment rate of U of A grads was lower than the national average at six months and three years post graduation.

"Our evaluations of these programs show an overall increase in awareness of career options and confidence about career prospects among participants," said Mathew. "Over the past few years, we have invested more time and resources into programs that provide students with hands-on learning and I think it shows."

Other recent rankings of note include one released by theCenter for World University Rankings, which listed the U of A among the world’s best in five subject areas, including sixth in transplantation, fifth in each of forestry, geology and petroleum engineering, and third in paleontology. Those results follow on the heels of theQS World University Rankings by Subject 2017, which placed the U of A in the top 100 in an unprecedented 25 subjects, including 10th in the world for sports-related subjects, 16th for nursing and 18th in mining engineering.

Earlier in the year, the U of A jumped an astonishing 79 places inTimes Higher Education’sWorld’s Most International Universities ranking. TheU of A ranked 31stmost international university, ahead of the University of Toronto (32), Harvard (33), Stanford (36) and Princeton (37). Other showings include a top five placement in theMaclean’sranking of top Canadian universities and the Alberta School of Business’ Executive Education program was named 60th in the world and sixth in Canada.

The top schools in Canada were the universities of Toronto (15), Waterloo (24), British Columbia (35) and McGill University (42).

Stanford sat atop the rankings followed by the University of California, Los Angeles and Harvard.

One of the best ways to reduce injuries from drunkenness among young Alberta adults who live alone—the group that has the highest level of excessive alcohol use—is to reduce their access to alcohol by having retail outlets and bars close earlier, two University of Alberta studies reveal.

“We have reintegrated socioeconomic information about who is at risk for harmful drinking in Alberta, and have identified a proven way to mitigate alcohol-related harms,” said Don Voaklander, a professor at the U of A’s School of Public Health and director of the Injury Prevention Centre.

“The Alberta government can use these findings to more effectively reach the segments of the population who are at highest risk for hazardous drinking and alcohol harm because our current alcohol-related education policies have limited impact on behaviour.”

The need for change

Since privatization of alcohol sales in 1993, alcohol consumption among Albertans has increased from 8.7 litres in 1993 to 9.4 litres in 2013.

Government alcohol strategies that work (and don’t)

According to the literature, the most effective health promotion strategies for alcohol consumption are:

Taxes on beverages with high alcohol content

Bylaws to limit operation of liquor outlets

Bylaws to reduce the number of liquor outlets per sq/km

​The four strategies that are remarkably ineffective, include:

Education programs

Increasing enforcement of laws prohibiting sales to minors

Media campaigns

Banning alcohol advertising on TV and other media

“Awareness-building is a health promotion strategy commonly used by the Alberta government, but it is the least effective at reducing injuries and deaths due to alcohol use,” said Voaklander.

A large proportion of fatalities due to injury in Alberta are alcohol-related, explained Diana Sanchez Ramirez, a senior UAlberta public health researcher and study co-author.

These include motor vehicle collisions, ATV crashes and violence. In fact, over 76 per cent of fatally injured ATV riders test positive for alcohol.”

Hospital traumas are often alcohol-related as well, added Sandy Widder, a UAlberta medical researcher and director of Trauma Services at the University of Alberta Hospital. She worked on a 10-yearstudythat showed up to 40 per cent of all major trauma cases in Alberta hospitals were due to alcohol use.

“That data only included extreme trauma, and failed to capture all the less severe alcohol-related injuries, like broken limbs for example, that occur,” said Widder. "When you add it up, these preventable injuries cause a huge burden on our medical system and are costing us billions of dollars per year.”

Widder added, "The prevalence of alcohol use, despite all of our messaging, is still a province-wide issue. Having a positive alcohol level is also associated with violence and other drug and substance use and abuse. We need to focus on all of these issues with intervention and not just have a very limited view of the problem."

Targeting younger drinkers

In one study published in theJournal of Preventive Medicine & Public Healthlast July, UAlberta researchers collaborated with colleagues in Queensland, Australia to compare alcohol consumption. While Australians had more hazardous alcohol use in general, a common theme was the increase of dangerous drinking among younger populations.

“Hazardous alcohol use is highest among Albertans between 18 and 24,” said Sanchez Ramirez.

The study also showed a pattern of usage among Albertans of higher income and who live alone.

“We believe this is probably related to the type of industry that is available in Alberta. Oil and gas workers tend to have higher incomes, unique patterns of work and tend to be alone (far from the families) for longer periods of time,” she added.

The research also showed that being born in Canada is associated with higher hazardous alcohol use. “Alcohol consumption is a normative behaviour in Canada that leads to a false security about what is dangerous consumption.”

The findings show that a one-size-fits-all approach to controlling alcohol consumption will not work, added Voaklander. “Public policies need to be far more targeted if they are going to be effective.”

Changing hours of availability

Existing literature has shown limiting liquor availability has an impact on alcohol-related harm. However, the U of A study in May’sInjury Preventionbreaks out, for the first time, the types of harms that could be reduced by limiting availability.

“We found that changes in the times of alcohol sales do reduce injuries, alcohol-related hospitalizations and emergency department visits, homicides and crime,” said Sanchez Ramirez. “It was less clear that restricting the number of hours when alcohol is sold in stores and served in bars would impact assaults and motor vehicle accidents.”

The mixed results on assaults and car accidents could be explained by flaws in existing research or by a more complex relationship between those outcomes and hours of alcohol sales.

“There is a theory that a fixed closing time in bars, for example, can lead to accelerated drinking and mass mobilization at closing time, whereas leaving the bar open to serve allows patrons to spread out drinking, leading to fewer car accidents,” added Voaklander.

The main takeaway here is that reducing alcohol trading times can reduce certain types of injuries, and that in fact, other additional strategies may need to be deployed to prevent assaults and car accidents, he said.

“There is often a financial pushback to reducing trading times, but it’s likely that the social cost exceeds any monetary gains from tax revenues,” he said. “Governments that perpetuate extended alcohol trading times clearly also need to contemplate the health burden on the population.”

UAlbertachemistryprofessorRobert Campbellis developing new ways to see and manipulate the activity of neurons in the brain, which could revolutionize the way we understand the organ that controls most of the activities of the body.

“We want to help other researchers apply these new neuroscience tools to disorders ranging from chronic pain to brain injuries,” said Campbell.

Looking inside the head

Campbell and his research group are developing tools to understand the inner workings of the brain in model organisms such as zebrafish, fruit flies and mice.

“Right now, we have good methods for visualizing the electrical activity in the brain, but not for seeing neurotransmitters,” said Campbell. Using natural fluorescent proteins, such as those in jellyfish and coral, neuroscientists will have new ways of seeing when and to what degree certain neurons are active.

As for manipulating brain activity, including the potential to implant memories, Campbell will be using a protein of his own creation.

“Using ourphotocleavable protein, we aim to make the connections between neurons either stronger or weaker using light, ultimately implanting certain associations, connections, and possibly even memories within the brain,” he explained.

An invaluable toolkit

The tools are highly anticipated by Campbell’s colleagues, including neuroscientists, researchers, and collaborators, from across the country. Their labs range in focus from developing models of depression and autism to understanding stroke and everything in between.

“These are the people who are putting the tools to use in health and health care research,” explained Campbell. “Our lab is just creating new and better tools to allow them to do their job.”

If there is quick and easy way to spend your way clear of life’s natural conclusion, UAlberta myth buster extraordinaire Timothy Caulfield has a new platform for finding it.

The health law professor’s never-ending quest to debunk too-good-to-be-true medical procedures, diets and revived ancient therapies has been turned into six-part documentary series titledA User's Guide to Cheating Death.

“It seemed like a logical followup to some of the work I’ve been doing on how science and health issues are portrayed in popular culture,” said Caulfield, a University of Alberta health law researcher. “We really did try to make it a little bit of an adventure for the viewer and get a wide range of perspectives.”

Caulfield, the author of Is Gwyneth Paltrow wrong about everything? (and an outspoken critic of her company, GOOP) takes audiences on a journey to expose the truth behind controversial health trends increasingly promoted by celebrities like Paltrow.

But the show isn’t just an hour-long de-bunk, he said.

“We really wanted to get into where this stuff fits into popular culture—streeters, in-depth interviews, I try the stuff. The goal was to keep it science-based, but we really wanted to get a sense of what is attracting people to these products and these views, whether you are talking about detoxification or some crazy diet, or even cosmetic surgery. ”

A transformation of his own

Caulfield said his own journey while filming the show caused him to experience a bit of a transformation of his own.

“I talk to all these people and these services really seem to be fulfilling a need for them, whether they work or not. That was real eye-opener for me.”

He said he would ask if the recipients of these treatments ever wondered if there was a placebo effect at work.

“One person said if it is placebo I’m okay with that, it is something that seems to be working for me.”

He recalled one interview with a woman who received a buttock implant.

“She was amazing at explaining why this procedure was right for her. It may seem absurd from the outside but when you hear someone explain what this means to them, it is really eye-opening,” he said.

Caulfield was also surprised by the sincerity and how earnest people were about these unproven procedures.

“I can be an aggressive debunker, so for me it was really good to hear that side and that perspective,” he said. “There were only a couple of times where I thought ‘you know what, this guy knows he is selling something that probably doesn’t work and it is part of a broader marketing scheme.’ There were just a couple of people like that and I think the viewers will know who they are.”

U of A on his mind

And while Caulfield’s quest takes him all over the world—from Hollywood to the retail strips of plastic surgeons in Seoul, South Korea, the U of A is never far from mind.

“From a perspective of an individual trying these things, it really is a complex story. People are searching for a wide range of things,” he said. “There are needs that need to be fulfilled and there is a whole bunch of things driving this massive industry and it’s not just marketers.”

Alas, Caulfield says there is no magic that he has found that can be bought to cheat death.

“If you don’t smoke, you exercise, you eat a healthy diet, you find someone to love—that’s about it,” said Caulfield. “I hope one of the things that emerges is that there are straightforward truths out there and popular culture is confusing that reality. We really do try to come back to what the science really says.”

The six-part series starts Monday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. onVision TV. The show has also been picked up in countries around the world (as well as CBC Worldwide) and has already been greenlit by the producer,Peacock Alley Entertainment, for a second season.

It’s an unassuming little gadget—a simple black box trailing coloured wires. But hooked up to a tablet and put to work in the middle of a canola field, a biosensor being crafted by a University of Alberta engineering team is generating excitement.

Surrounded by a group of curious farmers and crop scientists, U of A student Marcus Tamura put the device through its paces at a recent demonstration near Vegreville, in the heart of growing country in east-central Alberta. The goal was to demonstrate the diagnostic tool farmers can use to detect early stem rot disease in canola—one of the province’s biggest cash crops.

They seemed to like what they saw.

“They definitely were aware of stem rot and I don’t think they’d ever considered there might be an early warning system being developed,” said Tamura.

The disease, known as sclerotinia, causes white mould and is spread by airborne spores which are hard to detect before treatment is too late. In 2010, up to 90 per cent of crops in Western Canada showed signs of the disease, according to theCanola Council of Canada.

Tamura, a third-year undergraduate student in theFaculty of Engineeringand a member ofprofessor Jie Chen’s lab, ispart of an extensive team of chemists, biologists and engineers working to create a biosensor that is portable, inexpensive and can be widely used, on the farm and beyond.

They are working withInnoTech Albertascientists based in Vegreville to see if the biosensor can be tweaked enough to pinpoint the one or two types of troublesome spores that need to be caught early. Supported by theAlberta Crop Industry Development Fund, the project could have real reach; potentially, several biosensors could be stationed around a growing crop and monitored daily for results.

During the Vegreville field demonstration, Tamura was peppered with questions from farmers eager to start using the biosensor. “They were wondering how soon the technology would come to market, how much it would cost and how easy it would be to use.”

But the agricultural community isn’t the only one that can benefit from building a better biosensor. The researchers are also running trials that include detecting E. coli for a water-monitoring project in India, bowel death for those with gut disease or trauma, and lung cancer.

While a standard version of the device—which translates something biological in the body into a measurable signal to indicate disease—costs tens of thousands of dollars, the idea is to make that technology far more accessible, said lead engineering researcher Scott MacKay.

Labs already do diagnostic tests, but the process takes time and often requires specialists. The U of A device is being crafted for easy use, quicker results and ideally, to test for more than one disease indicator at a time, MacKay said.

To that end, they are working to improve the biosensor’s method of detection to pick up multiple hints of abnormalities in the body.

MacKay, Tamura and their colleaguesin theDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineeringused a 3D printer to create their little black box and the sample-bearing cartridge that snaps into it, for about $60. They also designed the circuit board that runs it. By the time the device gets to market after completion within two to five years, they hope to get sampling costs down to $10 a test.

“There’s an opportunity here to make a real difference in endless ways through early detection and diagnosis,” MacKay said, noting that a patent has been filed on the technology. “We want to get it into people’s hands.”

Time’s end of summer headline, “Your cell phone Is 10 times dirtier than a toilet seat,” may have repulsed you, especially considering that, on average, we touch our cell phones 2,617 times a day.

The news story highlighted two new studies that showed there are 17,000 gene copies of bacteria present on the average cell phone, and 10 times more bacteria than a toilet seat.

First, the good news: “Only certain strains of a few of these bacteria are significant pathogens [disease spreaders] but the methods used in these studies at best, only get to the species level,” said Nicholas Ashbolt, a professor in UAlberta’s School of Public Health. In other words, it’s not clear what bacteria were identified on the phones and if any would cause infection.

Now the bad news: “Although the presence of these bacteria on our cell phones does not mean we will get sick from them, there is a higher chance that we could become colonized with them,” said Jamil Kanji, a U of A infectious disease professor and a physician at Misericordia Hospital. “If colonized, the higher our probability of developing infections due to some of these bacteria, especially if you already have a weakened immune system.”

Plus, these bacteria are all on our hands anyway, according to Ashbolt, so the phone doesn’t really add to the issue.

“It’s still a case of don’t touch things, like other peoples’ cell phones, or door handles for that matter, and then touch your nose or mouth without first washing your hands.”

Here are a few other helpful insights about cell phones and germs.

So we know bacteria gets around on our phones, but can viruses be spread by cell phones, too?

“Yes, like bacteria, many viruses that cause respiratory illness (like various types of colds, influenza) and even some that can cause diarrhea illnesses (like norovirus or rotavirus) have been found on phones,” said Kanji.

“Thus, coming in contact with them and not washing your hands increases the chance you may cross contaminate yourself, for example, if you touch your phone and then say rub your eye, eat food, or even shake other people’s hands. This increases the risk that you could become ill from them.”

He added that it’s difficult to predict the probability of getting sick, but the probability is there.

Is a cell phone any greater a germ carrier or germ risk than say door handles around a university campus?

“Nobody has done direct comparative studies, however, both surfaces (a cell phone and door handle) act as fomites, which are inanimate objects on which bacteria and viruses can be found. So they both act as a method to spread potential viral and bacterial pathogens,” said Kanji.

“One may hypothesize that more people are in contact with a door knob, but then if you’ve touched a doorknob and then you touch your phone–it could become a contaminated surface for bacteria/viruses. Thus, they are likely similar risks.”

In addition to not sharing your phone with others, what are some risk reductions tips?

“Wash your hands frequently with water and soap or an alcohol-based cleanser,” said Ashbolt.

The easiest way to decrease the germs count on your cell phone, added Kanji, is to lightly wipe the surface with an alcohol swab (most are anti-bacterial) or a very lightly moistened cloth that contains a cleaning alcohol-based solution, and let it air dry.

“This likely is sufficient if combined with regular hand hygiene, which everyone should practice routinely anyhow,” he said, adding that it is not advised to spray liquid disinfectants or use heavily wet cloths on your phone surface.

Despite aspen’s ability to grow from the northernmost reaches of Canada to the highest altitudes in Mexico, the tree is on the run.

The southern part of the aspen’s range is drying up, while the northern edges are warming up and thus becoming more conducive to the tree’s survival, because of climate change, said Justine Karst, the NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Terrestrial Restoration Ecology.

And while the shrinking, expanding or shifting of a tree’s habitat is always cause for concern, Karst said the bigger questions surround what then happens to one of nature’s unheralded carbon sink champions and a plant’s best friend—the mysterious mycorrhizal fungi.

In support of this research and 160 other UAlberta researcher, post-graduate student and postdoctoral fellow projects across multiple natural sciences and engineering fields, the federal government announced $26.1 million in fundamental research funding through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grants program.

“This is an exciting day for fundamental research across Canada and for the University of Alberta.NSERCDiscovery Grants, scholarships and fellowships provide long-term resources that allow researchers to tackle global challenges and innovate for the public good by taking risks and exploring novel pathways of inquiry,” said UAlberta president David Turpin, who was joined by Amarjeet Sohi,minister of Infrastructure and Communities in making the announcement.

According to Karst, mycorrhizal fungi—which comes in two types, arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal—colonize the fine root tips of just about every tree and plant on Earth.

In a symbiotic ballet from which life as we know it is allowed to spring, these mycorrhizal fungi grow tiny branch-like hypha into the soil to break down organic matter in a way that roots can’t, taking up nutrients and essentially feeding to the plant.

“A tree could not grow without them,” explained Karst.

While most fungi get their carbon from decomposing matter, Karst said mycorrhizal fungi have given up that ability over time and are completely reliant on a living host to get their carbon supply, which they get through the plant’s sugars

“It is a mutualism, so, yes, they both need each other.”

And while this nutrient transfer from the fungi is what feeds the tree, it’s offering is what makes the headlines these day.

Karst explained those carbon-laden sugars begin as carbon dioxide in the air before it is photosynthesized by the plant.

“Upwards of 40 per cent of those sugars get allocated below ground to support these symbiotes,” she said. “As we learn about mycorrhiza, we learn they affect a lot of ecosystem processes; one of them is carbon cycling.”

Researchers believe that up to 50 per cent of carbon in soils is derived by mycorrhizal fungi.

Karst said she chose to study the aspen because of its wide range and the fact it is the rare species of tree that hosts both ectomycorrhizal and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Because they differ in size and carbon-cycling rates—the larger ectomycorrhizal fungi requires more carbon and leaks more carbon into the soil—she thinks she will be able to determine what is happening to the ecosystem as aspens get stressed and then are lost.

“What I’m interested in is before aspen moves across the landscape, and how a changing environment affects the mycorrhizal community and the cascading effects on ecosystem processes like carbon cycling,” she said. “Typically when we are thinking about roots and microorganisms, we don’t necessarily connect them to these larger scale ecosystem processes. We don’t think of them affecting the forest as whole. There is that avenue of recognizing when we are thinking of forest health, resiliency and productivity—you also have to think these microbes in the soil.

“When you think of the health of the forest, its resiliency and productivity and how it is going to function in the future, we need to recognize that these small things matter.”

]]>news,Science & TechFri, 08 Sep 2017 22:28:59 +0200COMMENTARY || Our dangerous national trail is nothing to celebratehttp://www.folio.ca/commentary--our-dangerous-national-trail-is-nothing-to-celebrate/
http://www.folio.ca/commentary--our-dangerous-national-trail-is-nothing-to-celebrate/What we have is a dangerous motorway, not a national trail. Parliament should adopt a Trans Canada Trail Act that establishes minimum standards for safety and quality.By EDMUND A. AUNGER

Last weekend, the Trans Canada Trail organization triumphantly threw “a huge party” to celebrate a “momentous collective achievement” and the realization of a “major Canadian dream.”

The organization proudly announced that after 25 years and the hard work of “devoted and fun-loving volunteers, partners and donors,” the Great Trail of Canada was finally connected: “It’s the longest trail system in the world, and it’s in our backyard. This is Canada’s path.”

The Canadian government generously contributed $1 million to pay for “a massive party in the nation’s capital” and some 200 smaller events elsewhere.

Nobody wants to be a party pooper but, like the small boy who saw that the emperor wore no clothes, we need to speak out: Canada does not have a national trail. We have been duped.

We were promised a real trail. The legacy project proposed by Canada 125, and piloted by founding president Bill Pratt, was a cross-country greenway — a linear park — accessible to hikers and cyclists of all ages and abilities, and to be built as far as possible from motorized vehicles.

What we’ve got now is essentially a dangerous motorway. The alleged “trail” includes 8,500 kilometres of roads and highways, and 7,000 kilometres of lakes and waterways. (In northwestern Ontario, where the trail splashes and thrashes through 2,000 kilometres of treacherous waterway, hikers and cyclists must travel — at great risk to their lives — on the narrow two-lane Trans-Canada Highway.)

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians — including many children — donated money for construction of a safe and accessible trail; not for the designation of a perilous and inaccessible road. Founding sponsor DaimlerChrysler Canada summed up donor expectations: “You will never see a Jeep on the Trans Canada Trail. But you will see Canadians of all ages enjoying the Trail for recreation activities like walking, hiking, cycling, horseback riding and cross-country skiing.”

Although Pratt had intended to build the cross-country trail economically and efficiently on abandoned rail lines — already paid for by Canadian taxpayers — negotiations with railway companies proved unexpectedly difficult. Only after receiving substantial tax concessions did Canadian Pacific and CN Rail finally agree to transfer 2,100 kilometres of rights-of-way — but only 210 kilometres could be used for the trail.

Provinces and municipalities also purchased several thousand kilometres of rail line, however, they gave priority to local concerns, and they — not the TCT organization — have established rules and regulated usage.

By 1999, it was evident TCT would neither set appropriate standards, nor respect explicit commitments. When Canadian Geographic reported that nearly 30 per cent of the 16,200-kilometre trail would be opened to motorized all-terrain vehicles, former president Pratt responded that this was completely unacceptable and against the TCT’s basic policy.

He pleaded unsuccessfully that TCT assert its authority and refuse recognition to any trail section used by motorized vehicles.

In abdicating its responsibility to set and enforce minimum standards, TCT has not only betrayed its trustful donors and tarnished our international reputation, it has also placed lives at risk. The Great Trail’s well-publicized core principles, notably its promise “to provide a safe and enjoyable trail experience on high-quality trail,” have become little more than a misleading marketing ploy.

Parliament should end this dangerous charade by adopting a Trans Canada Trail Act that establishes minimum standards for safety and quality, and regulates use of the terms “Trans Canada Trail” and “The Great Trail of Canada.” No trail should be so designated unless it is genuinely non-motorized and recognizably world-class.

For an exemplary precedent, parliamentarians need look no further than the Trans-Canada Highway Act, first passed in 1949. Although a cross-country highway had been recommended as early as 1912, provincial and municipal governments were focused on local road projects and had little interest in supporting an interprovincial route passing through sparsely populated regions.

The federal law provided financial incentives for construction of a cross-country roadway taking the shortest practical east-west route and meeting agreed standards.

Everyone loves a party. But let’s wait until we can celebrate a true achievement, the completion of a real cross-country trail. Not the promotion of a booby-trapped mirage.

Edmund A. Aunger is a professor emeritus in political science at the University of Alberta, Campus Saint-Jean. He recently completed a 12,500-kilometre Trans Canada Trail cycling ride from Victoria to Charlottetown.

]]>news,Comment,Society & CultureFri, 08 Sep 2017 16:58:03 +0200UNI LIFE 101 || Facing a university conflict? http://www.folio.ca/uni-life-101--facing-a-university-conflict/
http://www.folio.ca/uni-life-101--facing-a-university-conflict/First thing to do is get advice by making an appointment with an unbiased, confidential student ombud.By LESLEY YOUNG

Here’s the scenario: A student sees a C- on his economics mid-term, and the blood drains from his face. He knew he hadn’t been fully prepared, but he’d also been dealing with a new medical diagnosis.

With economics being his weakest class, his grade point average (GPA), and dream of getting into law school, were suddenly in jeopardy. He hit the panic button and booted it over to his professor’s office intending to beg for a makeup exam.

Is he making the best move? What would you do in this fictitious scenario? What would you do in any situation where you felt like you’d been treated unfairly by the university?

In fact, a student wishing to deal with an academic, discipline, interpersonal and financial university-related issue should make an appointment for a free, confidential consultation with aUniversity of Alberta student ombudsperson.

“Ombuds are impartial third parties, and we strive to ensure that university processes related to students operate as fairly as possible,” explained Marc Johnson, undergraduate student ombudsperson in the Office of the Student Ombuds. “We are advocates for fairness or due process, not legal advocates. But we can advise on what your rights are, and the best way to handle various situations.”

“Ideally, we arenota place of last resort,” pointed out Remonia Stoddart-Morrison, a graduate student ombudsperson intern.

“We are the place you can reach out to at the first sign of a problem for which you can’t identify a solution,” she explained. “Many problems become worse over time. And often things are more easily resolved early on.”

At your appointment, your ombudsperson will learn your situation, and explain what university regulations apply and what options may be available, said Johnson. “We will also likely talk to you about alternative explanations in a dispute—to try and help you view it from the other person’s perspective as well so you can make the best informed decision possible.”

“Depending on your situation, we can empower you with ways to express your side of things, how to frame an issue, and answer questions you might be asked,” added Stoddart-Morrison. “You’ll get much farther ahead when you have a respectful dialogue that doesn’t put anyone on the defensive.”

Tips for avoiding potential problems:

Be in the know

Read all the materials you are given upon registration with the university, including theUniversity Calendar, andCode of Student Behaviour.“Also read your course syllabus and connect with your faculty’s academic supervisor if you are unclear about anything,” said Stoddart-Morrison.

Watch deadlines

Don’t leave things too late. Contact an ombudsperson in advance of deadlines, especially those listed on arequirement to withdraw, said Johnson.

Explore your options

Before making an appeal for a grade change, for example, it’s ideal to meet with a student ombuds to find out if you have grounds. “We won’t tell you what to do or make a decision for you. We may make recommendations on potential courses of action and explore options. The decision is, however, ultimately up to you,” said Johnson.

In the scenario at the start of this story, if a student has a long-term medical problem, they may register withStudent Accessibility Servicesto determine their accommodation needs, said Johnson.

“In most cases, in order to successfully appeal a grade, one must prove there was a procedural mistake or bias in the marking,” he added.

“Course outlines should indicate how grades are allocated for each assignment,” pointed out Stoddart-Morrison. “Really, it’s best for any student who feels they are unfairly treated to come to talk us first.”

Caulfield engages in creative explorations of the tough ethical and philosophical questions related to health science research. His groundbreaking work involves sculpture and printmaking, biomedical and mechanical, ancient and modern, internal conversation and external conflict. Working with biomedical researchers, academics and artists, Caulfield’s award-winning collaborations—including the interdisciplinary initiative Perceptions of Promise, Immune Nations and Flux, which have all examined the interface of art and biomedicine—have been exhibited throughout the world.

Beyond the collaborations, Caulfield said the classroom is where he is most proud.

“I am sincerely grateful every time I walk into a studio class, but especially pleased when I see MFA students move on to professional opportunities and academic positions after graduating,” he said.

Spetch’s innovative approaches to comparative cognition have contributed to opening up a significant new research field: comparative spatial cognition. Her studies on spatial memory and orientation across different species have invigorated comparative cognition worldwide. Spetch has also advanced our understanding of decision making across different species and is internationally renowned for her research on how animals perceive, learn about and remember their worlds.

“I have had the privilege of being a part of research advances in understanding how animals learn about and navigate their worlds,” said Spetch, who contributed to the founding the Comparative Cognition Society. “I am fortunate to have collaborated with excellent scholars at the University of Alberta and internationally.”

Konhauser’s research ranges from the role of microbes in metal binding and forming minerals to describing the biogeochemical processes controlling elemental cycling in oceans through time. His work is significant in understanding the evolution of oxygenation on the early Earth. Some of the highlights of his research include understanding the mechanisms underpinning the adsorption of metals to bacteria and biomineral formation to using his knowledge of modern biogeochemical cycling to infer the timing of our planet’s oxygenation. He has published the authoritative textbook on the subject, is the founding editor-in-chief of the journal Geobiology and founder of the Geobiology Society.

West has focused her career on finding treatments for infants with lethal cardiac malformations. Through rigorous scientific and clinical investigations, West discovered that blood group mismatched heart transplants could be carried out safely during infancy, which saves hundreds of newborn babies worldwide each year and has profoundly transformed our understanding of the human immune system.

"Discovering avenues forward for children with otherwise lethal heart disease is immensely fulfilling," said West. "I have also had the privilege of leading a large and talented team of researchers across Canada in developing new therapies for patients with complex diseases."

Wishart has made important research contributions to structural biology and metabolomics. In the 1990s, he discovered fast and efficient methods to help determine protein structures. In the mid 2000s, he directed the Human Metabolome Project, a multi-year project that helped give birth to the field of metabolomics. The resources he created are now accessed by millions of users each year.

"My research has spanned many areas in the life sciences, but the common theme to most of my work has been to develop simple ideas or freely accessible tools that make science easier to do and simpler to understand," said Wishart. "My world view is that science should be fun, exciting and accessible to all. I think that it is wonderful to be recognized for the work I've done over the past 25 years to make science more 'user friendly.'"

Hall is an organic chemist recognized as a world leader in the chemistry and chemical biology of the element boron. His research work is centered on the study of the properties and the reactivity of organoboronic acids, and their multiple applications in catalysis and drug discovery. His efforts led to the discovery of new and greener reaction processes, and to new classes of organoboron compounds that are currently exploited as pharmaceutical agents.

Halls said he was fortunate to have chosen to study organoboron chemistry when he started his career, even though it wasn’t a mainstream research area at the time.

“It has since undergone a renaissance and I am proud the work of my research team has helped contribute to the current popularity and the many developments of boron compounds in several areas of catalysis, green chemistry and even in drug discovery."

The fellows will be inducted to the academies of the RSC at a ceremony in Winnipeg on Nov. 24.

The U of A has sent 148 academics to the RSC since 1956.

]]>newsThu, 07 Sep 2017 21:09:44 +0200COMMENTARY || We must make our schools inclusive spaceshttp://www.folio.ca/commentary--we-must-make-our-schools-inclusive-spaces/
http://www.folio.ca/commentary--we-must-make-our-schools-inclusive-spaces/Here are 10 proven strategies to help make it happen.By KRISTOPHER WELLS

This past summer saw record attendance at pride festivals across Canada, yet this was juxtaposed with more visible and vocal attacks against the LGBTQ community with rainbow crosswalks vandalized and pride flags slashed and burned, including at a local high school in Edmonton.

While Canadian society is growing more inclusive, there is still much reluctance and resistance when it comes to supporting LGBTQ youth in schools. Trans students are still frequently denied access to bathrooms in accordance with their lived gender identity and some parental extremist groups seek to “out” students without their permission.

Recent research indicates that the vast majority of Canadian teachers (85 per cent) now support LGBTQ-inclusive education, yet may not have the training or knowledge to know how to effectively create safer schools for LGBTQ youth.

As we head back to school, here are 10 proven strategies that all schools can engage to help build inclusive communities for all students.

1. Help start, strengthen, and sustain gay-straight alliances (GSAs) in your school. Alberta, Ontario, and Manitoba all have government legislation supporting a student’s right to create a GSA. The research is clear. GSAs can and do save lives. If you are a teacher, consider being a GSA advisor and display safe space stickers and posters to show you are an ally.

2. Staff can volunteer to serve as a “safe contact” in their school. Each month they can bring an update on LGBTQ resources, activities, and events to staff and/or school council meetings.

3. Update school forms, websites, and communications to become gender-inclusive. Recognize that gender exists on a spectrum, not a binary.

4. Review your library and classroom resources and add age-appropriate LGBTQ books and films. Literature can be a lifeline for many youth. Students need to see themselves in the words and the world around them. Society has changed rapidly, yet schools often fail to reflect this diversity and remain very socially conservative spaces.

5. Encourage your school board to pass comprehensive sexual-orientation, gender-identity and gender-expression policies with detailed implementation plans. Policies set clear expectations and authorize all staff to meet their legal obligations and become proactive in creating respectful, welcoming, inclusive, and safe working and learning environments.

6. Address homophobic and transphobic bullying and derogatory language whenever you see or hear it. Teachers and parents are very important role models. Remember, your silence signals consent and makes you complicit in the act of discrimination.

7. Make inclusion a priority. Engage in specific LGBTQ professional development for yourself and school staff. Education is the best answer to ignorance. Knowledge is the key to building inclusive human rights cultures in your school, classroom and community.

8. Create all-gender universal washrooms in your school. Washrooms can be dangerous spaces for many students, regardless of how they identify. Prioritize safety and inclusion over misinformation and fear.

9. Incorporate LGBTQ topics as part of your classroom discussions, curriculum, and lesson plans. LGBTQ students need to see themselves in their text books and in the halls and walls of their school. Visibility helps to challenge stereotypes and tells LGBTQ youth they exist and are valued.

10. Celebrate diversity and disrupt heteronormativity by connecting with local LGBTQ communities and agencies. Invite LGBTQ guest speakers into your classroom. Celebrate important awareness days like National Coming Out Day, Pink Shirt Day, and International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. Help show pride in your school and community.

Kristopher Wells is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education and the director of the Institute for Sexual Minorities Studies and Services.

Previous studies have found that roughly half of all women in developed countries gain weight during their pregnancy in excess of Health Canada’s recommended total weight gain for women with an average body weight of between 25 and 35 pounds. As well, those who start pregnancy with a body mass index (BMI) over 25 are more likely to experience high weight gain.

“The excess weight increases the risk of health complications for baby and mom, and makes it more likely that women will keep some of that weight after they deliver,” said Rhonda Bell, a UAlberta nutritional science professor.

Study participants experienced one of four body composition change scenarios up to nine months postpartum:

Gained fat, gained lean muscle

Gained fat, lost lean muscle

Lost fat, lost lean muscle

Lost fat, gained lean muscle

“The findings suggest losing baby weight will occur differently for every women and she will need to adapt her weight loss strategy as needed, including cutting out unnecessary calories, adding in physical activity and taking a view toward an extended timeline,” explained Bell.

Health Canada does not provide guidelines for how best to lose weight postpartum.

“It’s important for women to lose weight at a gradual pace, about half a pound to one pound weekly after the first six to 12 weeks,” advised Bell, adding that women need to meet but not exceed basic nutritional requirements postpartum and throughout lactation while the body repairs tissue.

“Eating well and being physically active will help the body reach a new, healthy body composition and level of metabolism.”

She added a common misconception is that breastfeeding mobilizes fat to return to a pre-pregnancy fat distribution and body weight.

“A lot of women believe that if they breastfeed they’ll lose fat but many find the weight doesn’t come off as quickly as they’d like,” said Bell. “our research shows weight loss and fat loss aren’t as simple as just breastfeeding after giving birth. All the women lost weight, but their body compositions were all over the map,” she said.

This study is one of many under UAlberta’s ENRICH research program looking at how to support healthy pregnancy across diverse groups of women.

“There’s a huge social myth that the people who will do the best at university are the smartest,” said Mebbie Bell, director of the University of Alberta Student Success Centre. “Everyone who gets to university is smart.”

In fact, until you find your footing, you can anticipate your grades to be below what you might want or even strive for. “One first-year student described the feeling like trying to stand on a carpet that’s constantly moving.”

What really gives students the edge at university is an ability to adapt, added Bell.

Learning tips for uni

“Most students with good academic performance go to bed and wake up at the same time,” said Mebbie Bell, Director of SSC.

Study and review course material in short, frequent sessions.

“The stereotype of a university student is them cramming into the wee hours of the night. But the best way to absorb material is in short, frequent review sessions, like reading your notes after class, and then again later in the week.”

You can’t retain everything.

“When you ask your instructor what’s important for the exam, a lot will answer ‘Everything is!’ But the best shortcut is to attend class to find out what the professor is emphasizing.”

“Being able to assess and adjust to new learning expectations and demands, while undergoing massive personal changes at the same time is the key.”

Facing an otherwise level playing field, how does one be a star adapter? Actually, it’s not nearly as daunting as you may think.

Step 1: After your first unsatisfactory mark, get help stat.

“It can be a huge shock when you realize that the habits you developed to get you an 80 per cent average in high school will now get you average (marks in university),” said Troy Janzen, a psychologist and an adjunct assistant professor at the UAlberta’s School and Clinical Child Psychology Program.

If you do get shocking results, take a few deep breaths, feel sorry for yourself for a day and relax. “First-year averages tend to fall to between B and C+.” said Bell. “This is normal until students settle in; learn how to adapt and the grades will rise.”

When students get to end of their degrees, do you know what the vast majority said they wished they’d done differently? “Ask for help,” said Bell.

Step 2: In order to ask for help, you’ll need to throw out everything you think you know

Change starts with not making assumptions about the right way to learn. High school academic philosophies and learning and testing formats are not the same at university, added Janzen. Just a few of the changes include:

Less learning in the classroom and more focus on independent study outside the classroom.

Emphasis on quality, analytical writing.

Firm rules and processes around exam redos.

Sure, it’s frustrating considering you just spent 12 to 14 years mastering a system, and now you have to start over again. “But don’t look at it like starting from scratch,” said Bell. “You’re going to use a lot of the skills you already have to figure out new ways to learn.”

Step 3: Develop new learning skills

With your new open mind, start to investigate what you’re doing wrong with your instructor by asking for feedback. Make sure you attend any seminars your professors or teaching assistants provide.

“A lot of instructors will announce informal drop-in sessions for everyone,” said Bell, adding that various student organizations also offer study groups or Q&A help sessions that will also connect first-year students with senior students.

But forget bad marks. Even if you feel like things are going fine—and still find it really hard—you probably need to enhance your learning skills to suit university academics, said Bell. “Most of us stumble our way through university and by the end we are fine. But that’s not ideal. It can be easier.”

The U of A’s Student Success Centre is designed to offer professional academic support to students, she added. There are a host of online and in-person workshops, most for a cost-recovery fee, including T2U Transition to University, which covers all the basics of academic life and campus culture.

Step 4: Ask yourself if you like what you’re studying.

A significant proportion of students, 30 per cent, will drop-out of university because of poor program fit, according to Statistics Canada’s 2011 Youth in Transition Survey.

“I was good in math and sciences and I liked computers but in university I learned quickly I didn’t like studying computers and dropped it,” said Janzen. “I ended up with a math major and psychology minor.

“By the end of second year, I was asking myself some tough questions about what I wanted to do, who I really was, and what mattered to me.” Knowing he enjoyed people more than numbers, he switched majors and the rest is history.

Being honest with yourself and following your heart in choosing the right path of study is one of the toughest decisions you’ll make at uni, added Janzen. “But don’t look at it as years wasted or money lost if you switch tracks. It’s all a part of important growth.”

In the meantime, check out your faculty for vocational support or counselling services and the U of A’s Career Centre services.

If you do decide to withdraw from a course, make sure you do it properly, pointed out Bell. “We see a lot of people who think they withdrew but didn’t complete the paperwork and end up with a 0, which can greatly impact your grade point average.”

Step 5: About money ...

Mastering academics is only one aspect of successful transition to university life, said Bell. Stress, new living circumstance, independence and other factors, including financial pressures, can all interfere with your ability to learn. Get a few tips from UNI LIFE 101 ||Making the big transition.

From a scholarship not coming through in time, to a student working nearly full-time to pay bills, financial issues can greatly impede your university success. “We find financial issues at the root of a lot of student struggles,” said Tiffany Sampson, a community social worker at U of A.

Don’t hesitate to reach out for assistance if money’s impeding your performance, she added. Student Connect is the best place to start for assistance with filling out paperwork for loans, to apply for bursaries, and to learn about additional emergency financial aid possibilities. The Community Social Work Team can also assist with assessing financial needs and navigating resources to fill gaps.

“A lot of students don’t realize they can reduce their academic course load by one course in first year,” added Bell. The point being, when in need, ask as many questions as possible. You might just like the answer.

There’s good reason to believe Fort McMurray workers are not experiencing major physical and mental health impacts one year after the fire, according to a UAlberta study.

“This is really an ‘Alberta Strong’ story. While there is some depression among these workers, it’s not mainly a result of the trauma of the evacuation or from losing their homes. It’s from lack of work,” said Nicola Cherry, a professor in U of A’s Department of Medicine and lead author of the study.

“An upturn in the local economy is probably the one factor most likely to support recovery.”

The study— the first to focus on the effects of the Fort Mac wildfire disaster on workers— surveyed 109 workers who were evacuated from Fort McMurray on May 3, 2016.

One in three reported having either a respiratory condition or a mental illness issue immediately post-fire, said Cherry, who is also an adjunct professor with the School of Public Health.

“However, a little more than three months later, most of those effects were gone. Only one in 10 reported a health condition they associated with the fire,” she added.

More than half of all participants reported financial loss from lack of work, and one in four had not held paid work since the fire, according to the survey.

“While less than half had returned to Fort McMurray when we completed the survey, 90 per cent reported that they planned to do so,” said Cherry. “The message here is that while there are some who still have lingering mental health issues, the vast majority of workers just want to get back to work.”

Cherry said that the findings align with other disaster studies that show survivors eventually recover after the events, adding that these study findings cannot be generalized to all evacuees.

“People choosing to come to work in Fort McMurray are probably more resilient than most,” she said.

She also noted that, based on her findings, “one can hope that evacuees of the wildfires in British Columbia also won’t be adversely affected long-term.”

The study was published in theCanadian Medical Association Journal.

One of the two study’s cohorts was funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Research. Both cohorts were supported with funding from the OHS Futures program of the Alberta government.

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been a powerful boon to Canada’s justice system, transforming the Supreme Court into one of the most highly regarded in the world, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin told first-year students in the Faculty of Law today.

McLachlin’s orientation address was one of her last public appearances as chief justice before retiring next December, her last at a postsecondary institution. As the first woman appointed to the position (in 2000) and the longest serving chief justice in Canadian history (17 years), the U of A graduate shared insights from her long and successful legal career.

“[The charter] changed our legal system massively,” said McLachlin of the charter, adopted as part of the federal constitution in 1982 to protect the rights and freedoms of all Canadians.

“The pundits of the time said it wouldn’t amount to much, that the Supreme Court would take a narrow approach and not much would change. Well, they were wrong.”

McLachlin was first appointed as a trial judge in 1981, she said, just before the adoption of the charter. She then watched as momentous decisions began rolling in from the Supreme Court that actually made a difference in the lives of Canadians.

“The court was taking a broad, purposeful approach to the words in the charter, from the guarantee of Indigenous rights to all of the other guarantees contained there. As time went on, we realized that the charter would become a meaningful presence in Canadian law and help create a unique, distinct brand of Canadian jurisprudence. It has stood the test of time and most Canadians identify it and see it as a positive force for good.”

The charter demands, for example, that the Supreme Court hear the views of “interveners”—those who are not parties to the litigation but have a substantial interest in the outcome—when arriving at any decision.

“Those interveners are people who say, ‘I may be affected, our Indigenous group may be affected, Amnesty International, Criminal Lawyers Association’—whatever it might be…there is a very powerful ripple effect.”

As a result of the charter’s influence, many countries around the world point to Canada’s top court as an “alpha court,” said McLachlin. “Canada, which was not on anybody’s radar when I started practicing, is now a beacon in the international legal world.”

As she prepares to retire after a career spanning half a century, McLachlin told incoming students she has never regretted her decision to practice law. Born in Pincher Creek in 1943, she completed a philosophy degree at the U of A before enrolling in law school when her admission inquiry impressed then-dean Wilbur Bowker so much that he accepted her on the spot.

“I am so proud of Canadian law,” she said. “It has given me, and will give you, the opportunity to be useful, to do something significant with your life.”

TEC Edmonton and pharmaceutical giant Merck Canada are partnering up to create a business incubator connecting burgeoning Alberta-based health technology companies with health business experts.

“It is so important because young innovators or young companies frequently have what they believe are great ideas but don’t have connections to the market, they don’t know for sure if their ideas are going to be relevant,” said Chris Lumb, CEO of TEC Edmonton, a business accelerator that is the result of partnerhsip between the U of A and the City of Edmonton. “By being connected to a company like Merck, a multi-national with broad reach and outstanding expertise, they know they are working on something that matters and will have commercial significance.”

The TEC Edmonton Merck Accelerator, which will be ready for occupancy early next year at the U of A’s Enterprise Square campus in the heart of downtown Edmonton, is the first major project to come out of the Alberta Merck Innovation (AMI) in Health Fund, a $3.7 million fund developed by Merck Canada, the University Hospital Foundation and the Government of Alberta’s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.

“World-renowned life-sciences experts want to help our researchers and entrepreneurs create new products and businesses based on Alberta discoveries,” said Deron Bilous, Minister of Economic Development and Trade. “That means healthier lives for people around the world—and new jobs and a more diversified economy here at home.”

UAlberta president David Turpin said in order for the university to serve the public good, the knowledge and innovation developed must be translated into practical applications that “protect, preserve and improve our lives.

“When health innovations enter the market sooner, a few very important things happen—we improve patient outcomes, we reduce the burden on the health care system and we strengthen Alberta’s research ecosystem,” said Turpin. “The TEC Edmonton Merck Accelerator will leverage and build upon Alberta’s combined health research capacity and leadership, and strengthen Edmonton’s place as a thriving hub of health research.”

In addition to helping Alberta-based companies grow, the accelerator is also expected to entice health technology startups from outside the province to relocate to Alberta to access the expertise available at the accelerator.

The TEC Edmonton Merck Accelerator will also help build up the specialized laboratory incubations spaces that relevant and high-potential young life sciences-related startups need to succeed.

“This potential collaboration between industry, philanthropists and the public sector would elevate the province’s life-sciences industry to new heights and allow us to more effectively respond to promising new discoveries,” said Chirfi Guindo, president and managing director of Merck Canada.

The University of Alberta launched a brand journalism website earlier today, complete with its own social media channels, @folioUAlberta and facebook.com/folioUAlberta.

“folio.ca will strengthen our ability to tell our own institution’s story,” said Jacqui Tam, vice-president of university relations. “The website carries stories that draw on the people of the University of Alberta and their ideas and discoveries, but the stories all have an appeal and relevance that extend beyond the university.”

The new digital news product offers news and information in five areas: science and tech, health and wellness, society and culture, business and commentary.

folio.ca’s mission is to share expertise from the University of Alberta that informs, stimulates thought and debate, and challenges opinion, something it will accomplish by providing a credible, relevant news source with content that empowers, surprises and provides solutions to its engaged readers.

“There are amazing discoveries that happen here every day and we’ll write about those. We’ll write stories that provide Albertans and others with a little more context about issues that matter to them by sharing relevant information from UAlberta subject-matter experts. We’ll write stories that provide advice, based on the knowledge of UAlberta’s experts. And, of course, we’ll post stories written by our experts on various matters, as you find in the opinion-editorial pages of newspapers.”

The university will continue to tell its story through traditional methods including media relations, said Tam.

“We’ll continue to pitch and share our stories with media outlets, and find experts to comment on issues, as we have always done.”

She added the new website is an additional communication tool for the university to help it connect more fully with its increasingly global audience, which is accustomed to seeking a wide variety of news channels on its own.

If you’re middle-aged, you probably have rolls at your waistline that didn’t used to be there. That daily latte or bag of chips has turned into a problem. What happened?

Call it the baby boomer bulge—the one that sneaks up on people in their 40s and 50s as hormone levels drop and body weight rises.

“It happens to virtually everybody as we get older,” saidRichard Lewanczuk, a professor of medicine and physiology in the University of Alberta’sFaculty of Medicine and Dentistry. On average, he said, people gain about one kilogram per year. “We hit that magic threshold and things can take off like a runaway train.”

In 2014, 5.8 million Canadians aged 45 to 64 years reported they were overweight or obese, according toStatistics Canada.

As hormone levels drop (testosterone in men, and progesterone and estrogen in women), the body’s fat distribution shifts from subcutaneous—the fat under the skin that is spread evenly over the body—to visceral fat that protects aging internal organs and gathers around the mid-section. As well, muscle mass, which helps burn fat, starts to shrink. Other contributing culprits to weight gain include genetics—the body’s natural instinct to hoard calories—and stress, which also tells the body to store energy for times of need. And if body weight goes too high, visceral fat cells “go rogue” and release inflammatory substances that make it even harder to lose weight, Lewanczuk said.

So what can be done about those unwanted love handles?

It helps to tackle the issue early on if possible,“before you get too much of that fat and into a vicious cycle of low metabolism and a propensity to gain more fat,” Lewanczuk advised. The other key, he said, is adopting a balanced, healthy lifestyle.

“It’s a combination of physical activity and watching your calorie intake. You can’t play a round of golf and then undo all your good work with a burger and a beer.”

‘Use it or lose it’

“Mostly what we see is a disuse issue,” said fitness trainer David McWeeny, team lead at the U of AHanson Fitness and Lifestyle Centre. “What happens to most people is that around age 40 to 50, they stop doing as much as they used to do physically, maybe stop going to the gym.”

On top of more leisurely activities like walking or gardening that Boomers turn to, it’s a good idea to include exercises that push the body to burn more calories, he said. Heart-pumping aerobic exercise helps ward off midlife muffin tops and resistance training boosts aging muscles, which lose 30 to 50 per cent of their strength and mass in people aged 30 to 80, he said.

“In general, the rule is, use it or lose it. If you aren’t using your muscles to the same extent as when you were younger, you are going to lose important daily functions like balance, flexibility and muscle strength. As people age, balance and gait start to break down, which is why we see a lot of injuries with older people from falling.”

Aerobic exercises include jogging, cycling or swimming. For moderate intensity—noticeable increases in heart rate and breathing—people should do a minimum of 30 minutes per day, five days a week. For all-out intensity workouts, 20 minutes a day for three days a week is a good start.

For resistance training like leg lunges, squats, pushups and weight exercises for the arms, a minimum of two non-consecutive days each week is needed, with 10 to 15 repetitions for each exercise.

Even hard-core runners and cyclists should round out their routines to include resistance training as they age, he added.

“You will maintain a level of cardiovascular health, but are still at higher risk of losing your balance and falling, because you don’t have that muscle mass and range of motion,” McWeeny said.

Whatever you choose to do, it should be challenging, but not painful, he added. “There’s no point in hurting yourself. What you want to do is find something you enjoy and stick with that on a consistent basis. Start slow and gradually add some intensity. Doing something is always better than doing nothing and more is always better than less.”

Give eating habits a tweak

As our bodies age, it’s time to tweak our eating habits, said dietitian Sabina Valentine, with the U of ACentre for Health and Nutritionin the School of Public Health.

“We expend less energy as we age, and especially if you aren’t exercising or have a job where you do a lot of sitting, it’s good to reduce your calories, bit by bit. When we might have once needed 2,000 daily calories, we may now only require 1,700, so those extra calories you take in over a year can eventually result in an extra five or 10 kilograms.”

She recommends cutting back 100 to 200 calories per daybeginning at about age 50, while leaving a bit of wiggle room for indulgence. “Eighty per cent of the time eat healthy, 20 per cent of the time indulge a little bit.”

Exercise routines are also helped along by good eating habits which help bolster shrinking muscle mass and keep bones strong, she added. Eat two to three daily servings of lean proteins like salmon or other fish, skinless chicken breast, extra-lean ground beef and trimmed pork. Also reach for carbohydrates—energy foods like breads, pasta and rice—in multi-grain or unrefined, whole wheat varieties. Baked potatoes with the skin on are also a good carb. Seven to 10 half-cup servings per day of fruit or vegetables provide vitamins with the added bonus of fibre that makes you feel full.

Valentine also suggests two to three daily servings of low-fat milk, cheese or yogurt for calcium, especially for women, who lose bone density after menopause.

And be sure to count the calories in your cup of java. “Generally, the fancier they are, the more sugar they contain,” she said. Sugar-free syrup, artificial sweetener and low-fat milk help knock off calories, or try herbal tea or water infused with fruit.

If you do stray to junky food now and then, don’t dwell on it, she added. “Tomorrow is a new day. Don’t let occasional poor choices sabotage what you want to accomplish.”

]]>news,Health & WellnessTue, 05 Sep 2017 14:00:00 +0200UNI LIFE 101 || Making the big transitionhttp://www.folio.ca/uni-life-101--making-the-big-transition/
http://www.folio.ca/uni-life-101--making-the-big-transition/Transitioning from high school is a major challenge on many levels. How are you faring?By LESLEY YOUNG

University life may come with a lot of soul-rattling firsts. First time away from home. First time you have to pay bills. First time you’ve had to make friends at a school with 150 buildings that cover 50 city blocks. (And maybe English isn’t your first language.) First time your parents can’t legally see your grades.

Bottom line: you’re embarking on a tectonic life change when joining the University of Alberta, and it’s important to be aware of that fact. Why? Because the wider open your eyes are to the challenges you’re encountering, the better you’ll be able to adapt, said Troy Janzen, a psychologist and an adjunct assistant professor at the UAlberta’s School and Clinical Child Psychology Program.

Get a handle on your emotions early!

If you experience anxiety, sadness or loneliness that is not going away, reach out to your doctor or one of University of Alberta’s free support services.

Pay attention to your body and breathing. Do you have tense muscles? Are you taking short breaths?

Recognize and acknowledge that you’re not invincible. Everyone benefits from support and help.

Keep tabs on how often you see friends, and do stuff outside of studies. If you’ve withdrawn, ramp up your efforts to keep in touch and do fun activities.

“This is especially important because it’s not unusual for first year students to have a higher incidence of mental health issues,” he added. He estimates up to 20 per cent of university students may experience a mental health issue like anxiety or depression.

In fact, according to the most recent campus statistics from the Spring 2013 National College Health Assessment, 36 per cent of U of A students felt so depressed it was difficult to function, and a whopping 50 per cent felt things were hopeless.

Don’t downplay negative feelings

Some stress is normal in university life, said Mebbie Bell, a learning specialist and the director of the U of A’sStudent Success Centre.

The challenge is gauging when stress is normal versus stress that is evolving into something more serious, like an anxiety disorder or depression, added Janzen.

“Many of us often feel the need to ‘snap out it’, or often there is resistance to consider mental illness for reasons of stigma,” he said.

Michelle Huie did just that in her first year of U of A medical school. She couldn’t figure out why she struggled to concentrate in class and it occurred to her that she felt numb. Her zest for life had faded, and others noticed, too. Still, she said, “I insisted I was just stressed out and it would pass over I wrote the next exam.”

Unfortunately, Huie’s grades told another story. She learned at the end of the year that if she wanted to be a doctor, she would have redo first year (a rare allowance). That summer, Huie got the help she needed and received counselling, which helped her stay well throughout medical school. Last year, she graduated and is now in her first year of a residency in pediatrics.

UNI LIFE 101

In this three-part series, folio examines some of the issues university students, especially first-years, often face.

TODAY: Transitioning from high school

WEDNESDAY: Struggling with grades

THURSDAY: When you need the help of the Student Ombuds

“Don’t make the same mistake I did,” she said. “I was very sick and should have gotten help sooner. I tried to mask it. Nobody else seemed to be struggling. And with medical students, you are with a cluster of people who strive to overcome obstacles and push past things. Everyone is a rock star, so I felt like I couldn’t show I was struggling.”

Watch for predictable phases of stress during the academic year, during the first and second midterms and end of semester. “It usually peaks early November and mid-December, and mirrors the pattern in second semester,” said Janzen.

If you get to the stage where your academic performance is suffering, seek immediate support, he added. In the meantime, try to anticipate stressful times and be aware of your mental health.

“One big sign you’re not coping well with the transition is if you isolate yourself,” he added.

In fact, lack of engagement at university is a reason in and of itself why students may not thrive in the transition from high school. “It can be hard in classrooms of 200 or more to connect and make a circle of friends.”

How to stay connected (introverted tips included!)

Meet like-minded students

“It can be daunting to connect with new people on such a big campus,” said Bell. “One of the easiest ways to connect is to join your undergraduate student association.” Check out the list of U of Afaculty associations.

Join a club

There are more than 400 student groups on campus that include residence associations, men’s and women’s fraternities and hobby groups to name a few. Check out one of thesestudent clubs. “TheHide and Seek Clubis a popular way to destress,” pointed out Bell.

Meet someone one-on-one

The U of ACommunity Social Work Teamoffers a program calledUniteathat enables students to enjoy one-on-one conversations about anything over tea. “It’s a great way to connect with a peer and enjoy casual conversations,” said Tiffany Sampson, a community social worker at U of A. For a confidential place to meet with peers to discuss more serious concerns, try the U of A’sPeer Support Centre, she added.

Step off campus

If you are extremely shy, reach out to a community-based social network or tap into a peer group online, said Naaila Ali, also a community social worker at U of A. “I’m an introvert. I found what helped make me comfortable when I was a student here was an online peer support group. Peer support can come in all kinds of manners, don’t feel like you have to conform to the norm.”

Volunteer

One measure that had a huge impact on Hui’s well-being was to get involved with activities outside of her studies, especially with volunteer work. “You can get tunnel vision when you’re at university, and all that seems to matter is your grades. Helping others can be an incredible positive experience and boost your own mental well-being.” Volunteer work is also an excellent way to connect for people with introverted personalities, added Bell. Find volunteer activities at U of A’svolunteer registry.

Finally, remember that while you may be feeling scared or lonely or overwhelmed, so are many other students.

“The onus to get engaged isn’t just up to the individual. We all need to be active in each other lives,” said Sampson. “If you sense someone is not doing well, or see that someone in residence is always taking their food to their room, for example, check in with him or her in a caring, non-judgemental way.”

TheU of A’s Community Helpers Program, funded by Alberta Health Services, is open to students and faculty who want to gain the skills to support others’ mental well-being.

A technology developed by UAlberta engineers could lead to a dramatic cost reduction for medical and pharmaceutical researchers to detect various types of proteins, used to develop drugs.

Faheem Khan is part of a team of researchers that developed a microfluidic cantilever, a device capable of analyzing and testing proteins, a key element in the process of developing drugs.

“It allows researchers to see how a protein is going to act with drug molecules, especially drugs developed for diseases such as influenza and diabetes,” explained Khan. “When scientists are engineering new drugs, testing their interaction with proteins is important.”

Researchers currently use a mass spectrometer to conduct this work while they’re developing drugs and while that instrumentis, in many respects, the industry gold standard, Khan added it is bulky and expensive to use.

In fact,a mass spectrometry device can cost around $500,000 but the device under development at the U of A would cost closer to $20,000, Khan said.

“Our goal is to make a portable protein identification system that can be easily carried around,” he said. “Our technology is not going to replace a mass spectrometer but it could be a complementary tool for special situations where a user wants to save cost.”

The researchers’ device uses a process called electrophoresis, which uses an electrical charge to make different proteins line up by type, according to their own charge, and then uses a microfabricated sensor to weigh them.

“Proteins are charged in a liquid medium and different proteins have different sizes that make them separate themselves when under an applied electric field,” said Khan. “We combined different principles of basic physics to achieve a complex task of protein testing.”

Because proteins are extremely small, a scanning electron microscope (SEM) is used to capture images of them. However, Khan explained the team’s cantilever device identifies the separated proteins by their effect on its vibrations.

“Instead of using a SEM or a mass spectrometer, which is very expensive and difficult to maintain, we’ve developed a cheaper device to analyze proteins,” he said. “The cost of electrophoresis-based protein detection using a microfluidic cantilever is much lower than a standard mass spectrometer.”

Over past few years, the team has demonstrated multiple applications of their microfluidic cantilevers. Now the technology is being commercialized through a startup calledFourien Inc.

]]>news,Science & TechFri, 01 Sep 2017 08:00:00 +0200COMMENTARY || Oklahoma isn’t working. Can anyone fix this failing American state?http://www.folio.ca/commentary--oklahoma-isnt-working-can-anyone-fix-this-failing-american-state/
http://www.folio.ca/commentary--oklahoma-isnt-working-can-anyone-fix-this-failing-american-state/Poverty, police abuse, record prison rates and education cuts that mean a four-day school week, Oklahoma is a cautionary tale of the downside of having low taxes and a lot of oil.By RUSSELL COBB

A teacher panhandles on a roadside to buy supplies for her third-grade classroom. Entire school districts resort to four-day school weeks. Nearly one in four children struggle with hunger.

A city overpass crumbles and swarms of earthquakes shake the region—the underground disposal of oil and gas industry wastes have caused the tremors. Wildfires burn out of control: cuts to state forestry services mean that out-of-state firefighting crews must be called in.

A paralyzed and mentally ill veteran is left on the floor of a county jail. Guards watch for days until the prisoner dies. A death row inmate violently convulses on the gurney as prison officials experiment with an untested cocktail for execution.

Do these snapshots of Oklahoma show a failing state?

Added up, the facts evoke a social breakdown across the board. Not only does Oklahoma lead the country in cuts to education, it’s also number one in rates of female incarceration, places second in male incarceration, and also leads in school expulsion rates. One in 12 Oklahomans have a felony conviction.

Rosa Brooks of Georgetown University Law Center wrote in an essay that states begin to fail when the contract between citizens and public institutions breaks down. States “lose control over the means of violence, and cannot create peace or stability for their populations or control their territories. They cannot ensure economic growth or any reasonable distribution of social goods.”

It may be hard to believe, but entry-level employees with a high school diploma at the popular convenience store QuikTrip make more than teachers in Oklahoma.

For four years running, the state has led the nation in tax cuts to education, outpacing second-place Alabama by double digits. Years of tax cuts and budget shortfalls mean that Oklahoma has fallen to 49th in teacher pay. Spending per pupil has dropped by 26.9 per cent since 2008.

Things have become so bad that the Cherokee nation, a tribe systematically cheated out of its land allotments in the creation of the modern state of Oklahoma, recently donated $5 million to the state’s education fund.

Lisa Newman, a high school teacher from El Reno, for instance, recounts a history of cutbacks, increases in class sizes, and her stagnant salary. She takes in less than $1,000 a month after all her bills are paid.

Newman, who recently moved back into her parents’ house at age 39, contemplates a declining standard of living while she raises two boys and works about 50 hours a week.

Shelby Eagan, Mitchell Elementary School’s 2016 teacher of the year, decided she’d had enough after a referendum to raise teacher pay through an increase in state sales tax was defeated in last November’s election.

“I would like to have kids some day,” she says. But that’s unlikely for now: her rent has gone up. She also buys her own supplies for her classroom.

Eagan is originally from Kansas City but she loves Oklahoma. She found her calling teaching in an urban elementary school. She teaches the children “how to tie their shoes, blow their nose, have superhero fights that don’t turn violent”, among other things. All of her students are on free or reduced-fee lunch programs.

After the referendum defeat of SQ 779, Eagan decided to look elsewhere for a better gig. Eagan found a job in the area that would increase her salary by $10,000 right off the bat.

Her decision to leave was mirrored in May by the 2016 Oklahoma teacher of the year, Shawn Sheehan, who wrote in an op-ed: “Teaching in Oklahoma is a dysfunctional relationship.”

At the Oklahoma Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, policy analyst Carly Putnam says education is only one part of the state’s dysfunction. Putnam cites the example of a popular support program for developmental disabilities which gave families of limited means resources to take care of their loved ones. It takes roughly 10 years just to get on a waiting list to be considered for the support waiver to help a disabled person, meaning applications filed in 2006 are just now being considered. Many of the disabled patients have died by the time their files are being considered.

One student with a bipolar disorder was nearly arrested and expelled, Eagan says. “No one had the training to deal with his manic or depressive days. One day, another student kicked him in the head during a manic day.”

This triggered Eagan’s student, who punched the offending student. Administrators decided to expel Eagan’s student and charge him with assault. Eagan eventually talked them out of pressing criminal charges, but the experience left her with what was a visceral encounter with the school-to-prison pipeline.

No country for abandoned men

The case of Elliot Williams is a stark example of how Oklahoma’s public institutions is failing its citizens. Williams, who had been honorably discharged from the army, had a diagnosed bipolar condition. After he experienced a few nights of insomnia at his parents’ house in Owasso, relatives brought him to a hotel.

Williams threw a soda can in the lobby and walked into a door. Hotel staff called police. An officer who arrived at the scene found Williams “rambling on about God and eating dirt.” The officer and the staff concluded that Williams was suffering from “some kind of mental breakdown.”

They escorted him out of the hotel and called his parents. At some point, while outside the hotel, Williams threatened to kill himself. A cop ordered him to stay seated on a curb. Williams got up and moved towards a police officer, who pepper-sprayed him.

Police arrested Williams, charging him with obstruction. The small town jail of Owasso wasn’t equipped to deal with a case like Williams’s. Instead of a suitable mental health facility, Williams wound up in Tulsa County Jail.

It was Williams’s bad luck to be transferred to a jail that only weeks earlier, federal agents had faulted for “a prevailing attitude of indifference.”

The jail was run by Sheriff Stanley Glanz, who would become infamous as the man who assigned his friend, Robert Bates, an insurance agent with no police training, to a violent crimes task force.

Tulsa County Jail was certainly no place for a man with a bipolar condition. And yet, with Williams in the midst of a breakdown, he was tackled and body-slammed to the ground by an officer. Williams had difficulty walking. He was transferred to a holding cell, where he rammed his head against a wall.

Seeing Williams unable to move, the head nurse allegedly told him to “quit fucking faking.” He defecated on himself and officers dragged him to a shower. He still didn’t move. To prove that it was an act, an officer put a small cup of water just outside Williams’s grasp. He never reached it.

For three days, jail officials—guards and medical staff—expressed “concern” about Williams but never called 911 or requested a hospital transfer. He was left in a medical cell, where a video camera recorded him lying there, unable to eat or drink. Five days after he was put in the Tulsa County Jail, Williams died of complications from a broken neck and serious dehydration.

Audits and inspections of the jail revealed decades of indifference to sexual abuse, overcrowding and overt racism. From one angle, the Tulsa County Jail is par for the course of the American criminal justice system. But from another—and in the opinion of the jury that ultimately sided with Williams by awarding his estate $10.25 million—Tulsa had seriously failed.

Shane Matson is a geologist whose family has been in the Oklahoma oil business for three generations. For Matson, the discovery of new reserves in Oklahoma is a good thing. The “dark outlook about the future of energy” is gone, he says. Cheap oil and gas are now abundant.

Matson fought Obama-era regulations in Osage County, where he was exploring for oil. But his industry’s political influence has now reached untoward extremes, he thinks.

Chesapeake Energy, Devon Energy and Continental Resources have lobbied to lower the state’s gross production tax, citing competition from other states. They’ve gotten their way, with Oklahoma’s oil and gas production taxes now significantly below those of its rival Texas.

One of the state’s richest men and its most renowned philanthropist, George Kaiser, has been urging an increase in the gross production tax for years. And there’s reason to believe it’s not necessarily a partisan issue. Until recently, North Dakota had been able to expand its education system with a 6.5 per cent gross production tax.

And despite the tax cuts, the Tulsa-based Newfield Exploration moved most of its staff to Houston.

Industry leaders, not surprisingly, see the issue through an entirely different lens.

Chad Warmington, the president of the Oklahoma Oil & Gas Association, says that about a quarter of the state’s tax revenue comes from oil and gas while the industry employs about 13 per cent of the state’s workforce. Dependence on taxes from oil and gas “has left the state unprepared for inevitable price downturns of a cyclical industry,” Warmington says. The current downturn, then, “has led many to question the state’s management of the tax dollar.”

The Oklahoma Policy Institute calculates that the current regime of tax breaks and refunds costs around half a billion dollars in decreased revenue every year. That figure, if correct, would cover the current $220 million budget gap in education but would still not be enough to make up for the state’s entire budget shortfall.

Broken safety net

Of course, many would not recognize their state in this description. One of the most respected bloggers in Tulsa, Michael Bates, said the whole idea of Oklahoma as a failing state was “hysterical and overwrought.”

After all, downtown Tulsa and Oklahoma City are thriving. The cities have been rated by Kiplinger among the “best cities in America to start a business.” Tulsa has rolling hills, parks and delicious barbecue. Tulsa People enumerates the city’s private schools. Affordable housing prices are the envy of the nation and suburban school districts boast gleaming new facilities. And yes, some conservatives think the four-day week is good for “traditional” families, allowing for more time with the kids. For affluent families, the extra day can be spent on college prep or sports. But for middle- and working-class parents, it means lost wages or added expenses for childcare.

And for poor families, like those of Eagan’s students, who rely on the free lunch program, it means hunger. Local food banks have to pick up the slack and deliver meals when the kids aren’t in school.

Nearly everyone I talked to for this story—regardless of political affiliation—was startled by the downward spiral of basic social services.

There is something deeply ingrained and unyielding in the state’s conservatism.

When I was in elementary school, I remember seeing my mother struggle with hundreds of thousands of dollars of unpaid medical bills after my dad died of heart disease. She was suddenly a single mother with an incomplete college education, no professional training and a mountain of debt. We depended on the generosity of friends and family to get by.

I recently asked her why she never went on welfare or food stamps while she worked as a daycare teacher and raised me.

“Welfare is for poor people,” she said. “We weren’t them.”

If you rely on the progressive account, it’s easy to think Red America is dominated by a majority of angry racists lighting a match to liberal democracy. And people in the hipper areas of Tulsa seem to want the city to divorce the state.

But there are signals that some Oklahomans want a change of direction. David Blatt, the executive director of the Oklahoma Policy Institute, and someone who’s happy to work with “reasonable” Republicans, points to three referenda widely expected to be voted down that actually won.

Oklahomans voted to reclassify certain drug possession crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, bucking the “law and order” line of the Trump campaign. They also voted to deny public funds to return a Ten Commandments monument to the state capitol, and against a bill to rewrite the state’s constitution that would have made it harder to regulate big agribusiness. All this in a state that gave Trump the third-widest margin of victory in America.

Meanwhile, facing another budget meltdown and a teacher exodus, the state raised cigarette taxes to cover the shortfall only to have the supreme court rule the law unconstitutional.

Governor Mary Fallin had an answer: prayer. The governor issued an official proclamation making October 13 Oilfield Prayer Day. Christians were to gather in churches and hope for a little divine intervention targeting falling worldwide oil prices. Fallin quickly back-pedalled when it was pointed out that her proclamation only included Christians. “Prayer is good for everyone,” she reasoned.

Prayer Day came and went. The price of oil has barely budged since. Three weeks after Prayer Day, however, the earth shook. A 5.0 magnitude earthquake hit the town of Cushing, a place whose claim to fame is the “Oil Pipeline Crossroads of the World.”

Maybe God had something to say about Oklahoma after all.

Russell Cobb is an associate professor in modern languages and cultural studies at the University of Alberta. He is at work on a book provisionally titled You Dumb Okie: Race, Class, and Lies in Flyover Country.

Wolves do not avoid areas of human disturbance when hunting moose in Alberta’s oil sands region.

New UAlberta research shows that predation rates of moose have increased near areas of high human disturbance, but low human activity, such as tailings ponds and pit mines.

“Wolves are not avoiding these features,” explained UAlberta PhD candidate Eric Neilson, who compared the population density of moose to the distribution of wolf-related moose deaths in the region. “In fact, they are using space near mines as they usually would, demonstrating that these spaces are not a deterrent.”

Environmental changes

When habitat is cleared for mining or oil extraction, there are large changes to the landscape that create barriers around which wolves move. A similar effect, Neilson said, is shown around rivers.

“Wolves are coursing predators. This means that they like to move across the landscape to encounter their prey. It could be that the edge of the mine provides a feature similar to rivers that they can move along and around in the same way,” he said.

However, the intensification of wolf activity and moose kills near the edges of these mines and tailings ponds is not shown near camps or upgrader sites, likely due to the presence of humans.

Future investigation

“There is a lot more research to be done in this area,” said Neilson, adding the impact upon moose populations is not yet clear. “With any change in habitat that causes changes in animal behaviour, there are many factors to consider and much more we can learn about what is really going on here.”

]]>news,Science & TechWed, 30 Aug 2017 18:44:43 +0200International trade a net benefit to the poorhttp://www.folio.ca/international-trade-a-net-benefit-to-the-poor/
http://www.folio.ca/international-trade-a-net-benefit-to-the-poor/Despite the possibility of a reduction in real wages in some sectors, developing countries are better off in a global economy.By MICHAEL BROWN

Poorer households in some developing countries experience net gains in well-being as a result of international trade, despite a potential erosion in income, a new study out of the University of Alberta reveals.

While it’s true international trade reduces real wages in certain sectors, research by UAlberta economist Beyza Ural Marchand found that cheaper imports also reduce domestic consumer prices, and the magnitude of this impact may be larger than any potential effect occurring through wages.

“The net effect of trade through the income and consumption channels is found to be positive and pro-poor in most studies of developing countries,” said Ural Marchand.

She added poorer households in India, for instance, have particularly benefited through the lower cost of consumption goods and, in fact, her research shows that both income and consumption contributed positively to household prosperity. She found wage incomes in Indian households improved by five per cent, while the cost of consumption was reduced by 16 per cent, leading to a 21 per cent gain in welfare.

“This is because food makes up much of the budget share for these households, and an increase in imports has helped lower food prices,” she said. “In addition, workers with less education gained relatively more through wages.”

Ural Marchand and an international team of researchers also found the same mechanism was in effect in China, where gains were larger in cities with a more competitive economic environment.

“In both countries the effect was pro-poor, implying that the gains were larger among poorer households,” she said.

Difference between rich and poor

Ural Marchand, whose research has thus far only focused on developing countries, explained the mechanisms through which trade affects poor countries and rich ones are inherently different.

“More and more research has shown that Chinese trade liberalization drove down the prices of manufacturing goods in the United States,” she said. “These price reductions would benefit the American consumer, while on the other hand, would lead to a reorganization of both domestic manufacturing activity and the labor force.”

Ural Marchand said this understanding of consumption and income are particularly important when evaluating trade policy, like NAFTA for instance.

“It’s important to consider that individuals are not only workers, but are also consumers that enjoy having access to a larger variety of goods at lower prices,” she said. “Even in cases where wage gains from trade are modest, or even perhaps negative, individuals may still achieve substantially larger consumption possibilities compared to a scenario without trade.”

]]>news,BusinessTue, 29 Aug 2017 23:22:35 +0200COMMENTARY || Our role is to support students when they are ready to be studentshttp://www.folio.ca/commentary--our-role-is-to-support-students-when-they-are-ready-to-be-students/
http://www.folio.ca/commentary--our-role-is-to-support-students-when-they-are-ready-to-be-students/We do them no favours if we help them stay in university when they are not functioning as students because of a mental health crisis.By ANDRÉ COSTOPOULOS

Demand for mental health support is rapidly growing on Canadian campuses. In response, we have poured more and more resources into clinical support services. Despite the additional investment, both waiting times and student distress are increasing. In a further bid to improve services, many universities have adopted some form of triage orstepped care modelthat allows them to identify the most serious and complex cases of distress and provide them urgent services in a timely manner. Even that has failed to make a dent in the problem. For every critical case we manage to address, many nearly-as-critical cases have to wait.

In some ways, these short-term strategies to address a growing crisis appear to be making things worse. And students are not the only ones bearing the cost. The inadequacy of our current system puts significant pressure on professors, families, student peers and university staff, such as advisers and clinicians who must increasingly improvise and accept additional responsibility for filling the gaps. This emerging crisis threatens to spiral out of control if we don’t make some significant changes in our approach.

Triage of cases into categories of severity is certainly part of the solution, but we have been going about it the wrong way. Under pressure to meet the immediate needs of severely mentally ill and sometimes actively suicidal students, we have understandably prioritized resources in their direction. Not surprisingly, helping these students mobilizes a very significant proportion of our resources. The problem is that we are not helping them as students. Let me explain.

Our students are people first, and we and they should take care of their well-being as people first. But, as universities, our role is to support them as students when they are ready to be students. In the long-term, we are not doing students a favour if we help them stay in university when they are not functioning as students. The goal of triage in a student services environment should be to identify the people whom we can support as students and those whom we must temporarily refer to external resources because we can’t effectively support them. The criteria for “functioning as a student” must of course take fully into account our duty to accommodate. This is a discussion we largely haven’t had in the academy. It is a necessary one.

Students in crisis often want to stay in university. It can be very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to convince them that they need to prioritize their well-being and that they need to take care of themselves as people and get better before they can return to fulfill their academic potential. University and society don’t make it easy for students to accept that. There are administrative barriers to temporarily leaving a program of study, and there are even more significant barriers to rejoining it later. There may be substantial financial consequences for an abandoned semester, and it can do long-term damage to a student’s record. Universities have to address those as part of the factors that directly affect the wellness and mental health of our students.

Society in general, and employers in particular, put pressure on students to have an unbroken chain of success leading to a career. We need to hear from people outside the university that taking care of yourself is OK and that it is better to take time to get well in order to do well later. Universities and the broader community need to let students know that taking a break instead of having a catastrophic semester is a sign of responsibility, resilience and diligence, not a failure in itself. We need to reform our policies to make it easier for students to make that decision. We especially need to work on making it easier for students to return to university without penalties after a necessary absence.

Beyond addressing the barriers to leaving and rejoining programs of study, we must examine our policies and procedures and address the ones that create unnecessary unwellness for our students. Universities are in some ways necessarily stressful places. They are competitive environments in which we expect people to grow and tackle new challenges. Some of the ways in which we do this, however, impose unnecessary stress and needlessly worsen mental health. We need to keep the good, productive stress, and get rid of the unnecessary, destructive stress.

As we reduce some of the barriers to convincing students in crisis to take time off, and as we address unnecessary sources of unwellness in our environment, we need to identify the external resources to which we can refer our students in full confidence that they will receive appropriate care. This is made difficult by the fact that the public mental health system is also challenged and overburdened. In many jurisdictions, waiting times for care in the public system are months longer than they already are in the university system. International students, whom we recruit actively, sometimes have very limited access to any health resources at all outside the university.

Unfortunately, universities are often not equipped to deal with the most complex and urgent cases that need the attention of the public system. We need to work hard as institutions to build the networks and partnerships that will allow us to get our students the extra resources they need. This requires a serious policy conversation with governments at all levels, and strenuous advocacy efforts on the part of university administrations for increased resources in the public system. Resources must be invested in public health systems to help persons in deep crisis who happen to be university students.

If all these things are required of universities, governments and private-sector employers to address the problem, one might ask: what does it require of students? It requires that they increasingly take responsibility for their own well-being by choosing to invest in their wellness, by taking breaks from studying when they need to, and by being in university when they are ready and not before. Exams and papers are not designed to see how well students can do when they are not well. Too many students hurt themselves in the long-term by being students when they shouldn’t be. Let’s all work to create conditions under which they can make the healthy choice.

André Costopoulos is vice-provost and dean of students at the University of Alberta.

UAlberta researchers have taken a major step towards uncovering the holy grail of vaccination delivery.

For years, researchers have been trying to develop vaccines that can be taken in the form of a pill or lozenge to eliminate the use of needles, while significantly reducing cost and the need for refrigeration.

One of the challenges in creating an oral vaccine has been the instability of vaccines in the acidic environment of the stomach, which means an inability to deliver viruses or drugs where they are most effective—in the intestine, explained Hyo-Jick Choi, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering.

The researchers developed a way to carry vaccines in small, FDA-approved polymer casings built to endure the hostile environment of the stomach. The capsules have a single pore on their surface that stays closed in acidic pH environments.

“This means that encapsulated drugs and vaccines would be protected in the acidic stomach environment and would be released in the targeted area of the small intestine that is rich in immune cells,” said Choi, who, along with Carlo Montemagno, director of the Ingenuity Lab, demonstrated a solution to both challenges.

Targeting vaccines to this region ensures the body’s immune system is able to quickly learn to recognize and attack viruses, he added.

Oral vaccines also provide an extra layer of protection, he said, by activating a mucosal response as well as teaching the body to create antibodies to fight a specific infection.

The U of A team took its research a step further and successfully used the model to deliver a common drug used to treat lactose intolerance.

“The amazing aspects of our oral drug delivery system is it allows for the encapsulation of diverse therapeutic ingredients such as genes, proteins, macromolecular drugs and nearly all types of vaccine,” said Ankit Kumar, a researcher on Choi’s research team. “That means our system can be universally used as a platform for drugs and vaccines focused on oral administration.”

Once fully developed, this technology has the potential to also be used to solve animal health and animal-food safety issues.

Ongoing research efforts are focused on optimizing the vaccine/drug-specific formulations to ensure long-term stability, scaled-up production of the microparticles, development of animal drugs/vaccines andin vivodemonstration of these delivery systems.

The research was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Alberta Innovates – Technology Solutions, the iNgenuity Lab and the University of Alberta.

]]>news,Science & Tech,Health & WellnessMon, 28 Aug 2017 21:15:56 +0200COMMENTARY || Think disability is a tragedy? We pity youhttp://www.folio.ca/commentary--think-disability-is-a-tragedy-we-pity-you/
http://www.folio.ca/commentary--think-disability-is-a-tragedy-we-pity-you/UAlberta disability ethics expert says ‘ableism’ contributes to the isolation of children with disabilities and a misunderstanding of a natural part of human experience.By HEIDI JANZ and MICHELLE STACK

You pick your child up at school and see her hanging out with a child with autism. Your reaction is: A) pride, B) confusion, C) concern, or D) pity. If you said yes to any of the above you could have ableism.

In schools, disability prejudice impacts opportunities for connection and learning for all children. Another word for it is “ableism”—a form of discrimination that favours able-bodied people. It has long permeated our culture through stereotypes—from hunchback movie villains to the idea of the “supercrip” that defies all odds.

Ableism contributes to the isolation of children with disabilities. It encourages students without disabilities to see relationships with their disabled peers as helper-helpee relationships, rather than reciprocal friendships. Worst of all, ableism teaches children early on that some lives are more worthy than others. This can have deadly consequences — evidenced by the eugenics movement of the early 20th century, and by more recent events such as the 2016 massacre in a home for the disabled in Japan.

As a society, we need to say no to ableism. We must see disability for what it is—a natural part of human experience, rather than something to be feared.

We are two university professors, working in disability ethics and in education, who met in high school. Our friendship was very nearly destroyed by ableism. We offer our story as an illustration—of how disability prejudice can afflict all kids, and how to avoid it, in the classroom and at home.

A ‘normal’ friend

We were both giving mainstream education one last chance when we met in Grade 11 English at Alberta College. What brought us together was our mutual (warped) sense of humour and bewilderment over why some people thought being just like everyone else was a good thing.

So, how did ableism almost destroy our friendship?

Well, there was the explicit ableism. A few months after we met, a nurse of Heidi’s told her, “Michelle’s just helping you because she feels sorry for you. You can’t have a normal friend.” Heidi started to pull away. Michelle felt like she had done something wrong. Eventually, Heidi told Michelle what the nurse had said. That was the first of many close encounters we’ve had with ableism.

Then there were people who didn’t bother to ask Heidi to repeat herself when they did not understand her. Others would simply ignore Heidi and talk to Michelle. When we’d go to restaurants, servers asked Michelle what Heidi wanted to order. Most memorably, there was the shopping mall Santa—who asked Michelle what Heidi’s name was.

But there was also the implicit ableism. Michelle went from being seen as poorly behaved to being seen as angelic, just because she’d befriended Heidi, the disabled kid. Yet Heidi was given no credit for getting Michelle to school on time every day.

Michelle knew she needed to take Heidi’s coat off and take her books out. (This was the 1980s; Heidi didn’t have an aide at school.) Heidi developed her very own behaviour modification program. She ran over Michelle’s feet with her very heavy power chair if she was late. She offered her a coffee or cookie from the cafeteria if she was on time.

Learning together

Heidi had an amazing occupational therapist that worked with both of us. She booked us an independent living suite to learn how to take care of each other over a week. We learned how to cook together (which did result in a visit from the fire department). Michelle learned how to dress Heidi, feed her and take her to the washroom.

Heidi learned to tell Michelle to drink her coffee before she attempted to help her with anything. “It’s not safe before your coffee. I can wait. Go drink your coffee.” By the end of Grade 11, we flew to Vancouver and spent five days on our own.

We grew together and encouraged each other to do what many did not expect us to do—go to university and eventually become academics. We are in different fields but have a similar commitment to expanding research-based public conversations and policy aimed at creating more equitable and inclusive societies.

Today, 33 years after we met, we see some changes in attitudes, but we still often encounter deeply entrenched ableism. This is not surprising given that from earliest childhood, we are inundated with disability stereotypes, such as telethon kids whose survival depends on the charity of able-bodied people. As we get older, we watch news stories about burdensome disabled people or the “supercrip” who achieves remarkable things. And many of the insults in the English language are based on disability.

How to de-ableize yourself

Approximately 15 per cent of the world’s population has a disability, and that number is increasing as the population ages. Most people will acquire disabilities at some point. Signatories of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities agree to foster respect for the rights of people with disabilities from early childhood on.

But how realistic is it to expect able-bodied people to have the capacity to implement non-ableist policies and practices?

If we want to educate children about the harmfulness of ableism, we need to start with “de-ableizing” adults. There are many strategies teachers can use in the classroom—to promote inclusion, learning and relationships between students with and without disabilities. But this is not just the job of teachers. It starts at home.

Think about fears you have about disability and where those fears come from. Think about what values are at play in deciding what makes for a good school, workplace or community. How might the values be different if people with disabilities were at decision-making tables?

Heidi Janz is an adjunct professor of disability ethics in the University of Alberta’s John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre. Michelle Stack is an associate professor at the University of British Columbia.

University of Alberta researchers have made two new discoveries in Duchenne, the most common form of muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder found primarily in males that is characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness.

“We’ve found one possible way to repair gene malfunction in Duchenne that’s significantly more effective than the most recently approved FDA drug,” said U of A medical genetics professor Toshifumi Yokota. “We’ve also found a new way that may prevent heart failure in Duchenne patients, a leading cause of death in MD patients.”

Duchenne is the most common of nine major types of muscular dystrophy (MD), and one of the most severe forms among children. It is caused by an absence of dystrophin, a protein that helps keep muscle cells intact.

Yokota said his team has been working with small DNA-like molecules called antisense oligonucleotides (AOs) that work like a stitch to remove the section of DNA products (or RNA) that’s disrupting the code for protein production.

In one study published in Molecular Therapy, the software the team developed sped up the process of identifying the best candidate for removal of the gene mutation that causes the disease.

“The dystrophin gene is our largest gene with 79 genetic elements (exons) coding for around 60 amino acids each,” said Yokota. “The computer was able to predict the best location to target by AOs in a much quicker and cost-efficient way.”

The team then tested the AOs developed to remove the gene mutation in animal models and in human cells in the laboratory. They found the approach was up to 12 times more effective at removing and repairing the affected genes than the most recently approved drug treatment on the market.

In their second study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team used another DNA-like molecule, phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers tagged with heart-targeting molecules, to skip the genetic elements (exons) known to disrupt protein production in the heart muscle.

“Cardiomyopathy is a leading cause of death in MD. Our approach rescued the heart muscle in animal models,” explained Yokota. “Our next goals are to translate these findings into therapeutics, leading to clinical trials with MD patients.”

Peroxisomes are “chemical factories” that process complex fat molecules into simple forms and modify reactive oxygen molecules, which together act to signal to cells and tissues to respond appropriately to changes in their environment.

For their study, the group created fruit flies that could be used specifically for studying peroxisomal disorders, which are rare genetic diseases affecting humans.

The team found that peroxisomes are necessary for proper functioning of the innate immune system, the body’s first line of defense against microorganisms. The innate immune system is an ancient system of immunity that identifies, captures and processes a pathogen, and then presents it to the acquired immune system.

The peroxisomes communicate to other organs that there is an infection. The team discovered that when the organelle’s basic function is altered, this communication is lost and the organism does not fight the bacteria.

“Understanding how the body fights infection has an impact on human health,” says Di Cara. “We have to understand who the ‘fighters’ in the organism are before we can identify what’s failing in the battle against bacterial infections.”

Along with their collaborator Nancy Braverman from McGill University, the researchers used a mouse model to confirm that what they observed in the flies also occurred in a mammalian system.

“To find organelles like peroxisomes that had no link whatsoever to fighting bacterial infections was a critical discovery—it will help expand the roles of what this important organelle does in innate immunity against bacterial and fungi, and its involvement in viral signaling and the lethal peroxisome genetic diseases,” says Rachubinski. “As the threat of bacterial infections continues to grow, this discovery can help move our understanding of immunity forward.”

The work was recently published in Immunity. Funding for project came from Alberta Innovates Collaborative Research and Innovation Opportunities Program and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Female squirrels who align their reproduction to take advantage of food-rich years have more pups that survive to maturity, according to new research from UAlbertabiologists.

This year, spruce trees produced unusually high numbers of cones, a phenomenon that occurs roughly twice a decade.

Squirrel baby boom

“When this happens, there is enough food around to support many more squirrels than at times of low cone production,” explainedAnni Hämäläinen, a UAlberta biologist and postdoctoral fellow. “Any babies born on the eve of such abundance will have a much higher chance of surviving the harsh winter ahead, relying on a pantry full of cones.

Natural selection at work

“It is a prime example of natural selection due to variation in the environment,” added Hämäläinen. “Female squirrels who can identify a mast year and maximize their breeding efforts accordingly have enduring legacies, as more individuals in the next generation of squirrels will be carrying her genes.”

Producing and raising offspring takes a lot of time and energy. For squirrels, being a parent can shorten one’s lifespan when time and energy is limited. Squirrels’ ability to interpret cues from the environment that allow the parent to anticipate mast years allow them to make more informed reproductive decisions, and set their pups up for success.

The paper, “Fitness consequences of peak reproductive effort in a resource pulse system," is published inScientific Reports.

An international team of microbiologists may have found a solution to Earth’s dire nitrogen problem.

UAlberta biologist Lisa Stein said Earth’s nitrogen cycle has been thrown off balance by the process we use to make fertilizer, known as theHaber-Bosch process, which adds massive amounts of fixed nitrogen, in the form of ammonium, to the environment.

The downstream effects of excess ammonium has severe environmental implications, from creating dead zones in our oceans to a emitting greenhouse gases 300 times worse than that of carbon dioxide on a molecule to molecule basis.

“I consider nitrogen the camouflaged beast in our midst,” said Stein. “Humans are now responsible for adding more fixed nitrogen to the environment than all natural sources combined.”

She added that the nitrogen cycle has been identified as the most unbalanced biogeochemical cycle on the planet.

That could change thanks to groundbreaking research Stein and a colleague at the University of Vienna conducted. They showed that isolating and characterizing theNitrospira inopinatamicrobe could hold the answers for Earth’s nitrogen problem.

“TheNitrospira inopinatamicrobe is an ammonium sponge that outcompetes nearly all other bacteria and archaea in its oxidation of ammonium in the environment,” explained Stein. “Now that we know how efficient this microbe is, we can explore practical applications to reduce the amount of ammonium that contributes to environmental problems in our atmosphere, water and soil.”

The applications range from the development of more efficient biofilms for wastewater treatment, to drinking water and soil purification.

Using lasers and photodetectors, a new optical brain-imaging tool is providing a never-before-seen look inside your head.

The non-invasive tool, called theImagent, measures the rate at which infrared light moves through the brain to paint a picture of brain activity and blood flow at the same time—something that was impossible until now.

“This optical imaging system provides images of rapid changes in brain activity, solving many unanswered questions about how our brains function from moment to moment,” said UAlberta neuroscientist Kyle Mathewson. “The system is genuinely cutting edge. Our lab at the University of Alberta will have one of only a few in the world and first of its kind in Canada.”

The tool comes to the U of A as the result of funding for Mathewson from theJohn R. Evans Leaders Fund(JELF), a Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) initiative. The equipment will be housed in the new Shared Cognitive Neuroscience lab in the Faculty of Science.

Invaluable implications

Mathewson, who works out of the Faculty of Science’ department of psychology and is an affiliate of theNeuroscience and Mental Health Institute,studies how the brain focuses on and filters out different information. His research has implications from job training and professional development to creating smarter artificial intelligence.

“We want to measure a person’s state of attention from moment to moment,” he said. “For instance, we could pinpoint the moment when a driver stops paying attention to the road, or determine practices to help students learn better and more efficiently. This tool will allow us unprecedented views of the brain networks that give rise to these and other important behaviours.”

The implications, Mathewson explained, are huge.

“This optical imaging system helps to put the UAlberta cognitive neuroscience program even more firmly on the map,” he said. “Securing this tool widens the scope of potential research and is already attracting interest from students and scientists around the world.”

At the grant announcement last week, Kirsty Duncan, Canada’s minister of science, shared a similar sentiment.

“Our scientists need the best tools and equipment for ground-breaking research and discovery and we are committed to ensuring they have them. Their successes will lead to an improved economy and will fuel an active research community here in Canada and internationally,” she said.

Ahmed Qureshi, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, also a grant from JELF for his project titled “Design for additive Manufacturing: Developing assembly and lifecycle models for Additive Manufacturing processes.”

]]>news,Science & TechWed, 23 Aug 2017 08:00:00 +0200Digital storytelling helps people with dementia trigger memorieshttp://www.folio.ca/digital-storytelling-helps-people-with-dementia-trigger-memories/
http://www.folio.ca/digital-storytelling-helps-people-with-dementia-trigger-memories/Creating short videos using pictures and music has many benefits for patients with dementia and their families, UAlberta study finds.

Myrna Caroline Jacques tells her story as part of Elly Park's digital storytelling study.

By LAURIE WANG

For Myrna Caroline Jacques, digital storytelling is her way of fighting Alzheimer’s.

“I thought maybe if I do this and use my brain, the disease won’t take over as soon.

“As the people I worked with shaped their own stories, they were able to recall new memories. Even after they watched the story with their loved ones, some of the images would uncover more memories from the past,” said Elly Park, principal investigator and assistant clinical lecturer in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine’sDepartment of Occupational Therapy.

Park worked with seven participants in Edmonton, each at a different stage of dementia. Using the digital storytelling workshop model from Simon Fraser University, Park adapted the program to one-on-one sessions and would visit participants at their home to help build their digital story. Each participant chose their own pictures, music and words, and recorded their own voice as the narrator. After the stories were completed, families and loved ones were invited to watch the stories together.

“Sitting down with the participant to work on the five-minute story helped them think of positive memories,” explained Park. “As we shared stories, deeply buried memories would surface. Creating a story with voice, images and music also gave them an emotional legacy piece.”

She added that people who have dementia are often scared of losing their ability to communicate.

“Another participant told me, ‘One of my fears is, I went through dementia with my mother and it gets bad at the end. And that’s all the memories I seem to have, is all the bad stuff.’ She really appreciated this opportunity to create something positive that her family could have to remember her by.”

Park and her team analyzed the participants’ interviews about their experiences with this digital storytelling process. The results showed the impact was quite powerful in various ways. The participants thoroughly enjoyed the process of reminiscing and sharing stories, but were also astounded with what was possible when using technology and multimedia to present their stories.

The team found engaging individually with each participant was a critical part of making this process enjoyable.

Park said that meeting the participants in their homes was critical as it kept them in a familiar space, which is helpful for triggering memories.

“They were able to relax and open up more because it was just me working with them, and not a big group,” said Park.

Jacques agreed. “I think it has been very enlightening for me. I think digital storytelling is a wonderful thing because I think there can be some help with Alzheimer’s and that makes me excited because I think, ‘yeah, that can help the next generation.’”

This study was was published in International Conference on Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population in July 2017, and conducted in partnership with Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging and AGE-WELL, NCE. For more information on digital storytelling, please contact elly1@ualberta.ca.

And take heart: even if the day is partly cloudy, the viewing should still be good.

“If you can see your shadow, it’s clear enough to see the eclipse,” said Morsink.

The partial eclipse—which last appeared in the Edmonton area in 2014—will be at its height at about 11:30 a.m.

The event, which will see the sun reduced to a crescent, is really an “amazing coincidence” anytime it happens, given that sun is both 400 times further away from Earth and 400 times larger in diameter than the moon, she noted.

Through a filtered telescope—like those at the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada observatory at Telus World of Science—people can look for phenomena they wouldn’t be able to see with the naked eye, like sunspots. “It’s fun to see the shadow of the moon go over them.” Loops of gas ringing the sun may also be visible as they become blotted out by the moon.

The next eclipse to grace North America’s skies won’t come around until 2024 and will be over Eastern Canada, so Morsink, who traveled to the U.S. to view the eclipse at its fullest, urges people to take a few minutes out of their day to enjoy the light show.

“Events like this are a reminder of how amazing our universe is,” she said.

Six safety tips to view the eclipse

1. Use special solar glasses. These light cardboard spectacles can be purchased online.

2. Don’t look at an eclipse with the naked eye. Even a partial eclipse will burn your retinas.

4. Make your own viewer by purchasing welder’s glass No. 14 from a welding supply store, cutting out a square opening in a piece of cardboard and duct-taping the glass to the cutout.

5. For a different and distinctly artsier perspective, create a simple pinhole viewer by poking a tiny hole in a piece of cardboard with a safety pin. The shadow cast on the ground will show the crescent of the partial eclipse.